N4 grammar

〜てある

tearu

Left in a prepared state

Formation

てある describes the state something is in because a person put it that way on purpose. The window is open because somebody opened it. Compare ている, which just reports what is going on without crediting anyone.

Examples

〜てある is marked in each sentence. Tap any word for its dictionary entry.

  1. I've decided what to cook for dinner.

  2. This house is registered in my name.

  3. The car has been kicking around the roadside for weeks.

  4. How does the preface run?

  5. Her car has a nice polish.

The explanation is ours, written for this site. Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), each machine-checked to actually contain the pattern. Furigana is generated automatically, so a rare reading may be imperfect.