삼촌 | uncle |
눕다 | to lie down |
사촌 | cousin |
입원하다 | to be hospitalized |
some V+ 아/어 있다 This indicates the action that happened in the past is continuing or maintaining the resulting state. (It has been~) While ~고 있다 shows an ongoing action, -어 있다 shows a continued result. Therefore, this grammar only combines with verbs that can indicate a resulting state.
삼촌이 누워 있어요.
Uncle is lying down. (He is already in that state.)
(‘삼촌이 눕고 있어요’ means he is in the process of lying down right now.)
친구가 미국에 가 있어요.
My friend is in America.
사촌이 병원에 입원해 있어요.
My cousin has been hospitalized.
- You can use ‘~아/어 계세요’ for honorific.
할아버지께서 입원해 계세요.
- It works effectively with passive verbs because the passive voice is generally used to describe the result of an action performed by a subject. This makes it especially useful for expressing the resulting state of that action being maintained, as in the -어 있다 sentence.
돌 위에 글이 쓰여 있어요.
Words are written on the stone. (*쓰이다 = to be written)
사진이 벽에 걸려 있어요.
The photo is hung on the wall. (*걸리다 = to be hung)
문이 닫혀 있어요. (*닫히다 = to be closed)
The door is closed.
Examples that cannot be used with -어 있다
먹어 있다. X
→ Eating cannot be maintained as a continuous state after completion.
입어 있다. X
→ '입다' has two meanings: 1. to put on and 2. to wear. Since it already indicates the resultative meaning of wearing after putting something on, it doesn't combine with -어 있다. Instead, use 입었어요 to say ‘she is wearing clothes’.
차여 있다. X
→ '차이다(to be kicked)' is the passive form of '차다 (to kick)'. Although it's a passive verb, it doesn't represent an action whose result can be continuously maintained.
vowel ㅏ,ㅗ | 아 있다 | ex. 가 있다, 와 있다 |
vowel ㅏ,ㅗ X | 어 있다 | ex. 피어 있다, 열려 있다 |
~하다 | 여 있다 | ex. 해 있다(하여 있다), 입원해 있다 |
Exception Rule | ex. 누워 있다 |
