てある / ている / ておく — the state-placement family (Cure Dolly L21)

The family — all three are “be” + a て-form

form	build	what it says
ている	verb-て + いる	is-doing / is-in-state of (uses the animate be)
てある	other-move verb-て + ある	exists in a state of having been done by someone else
ておく	verb-て + おく (=置く, place)	put the action in place — do it and leave the result standing

ている vs てある — the window pair

• 窓が開いている = the window is open. Plain state. Nobody is implied to have opened it — the window is treated as an honorary animate being, open “of its own volition”.
• 窓が開けてある = the window is open because somebody opened it. Uses the other-move verb 開ける + ある, so the object loses animacy and is a mere object of someone else’s act.
  • が still marks the window: 窓が開けてある = “the window exists in the state of having been opened”.

English has no equivalent for てある → translate as “stands [done] by someone”.

そのびんにはラベルが貼ってあって、「オレンジ・マーマレード」と書いてあった “As for that jar, a label stood pasted on it, and it stood written ‘Orange Marmalade’.” (Not “the label said…” — English personifies the label, Japanese says the thing stands with words written on it. Written-on-things habitually take てある.)

ておく — put the action in place

Core = おく (置く, place). Do the action and fix its result in place.

Two halves of one coin:

• 窓が開けてある — from the window’s side: it stands open because someone opened it
• 窓を開けておく — from the person’s side: open it so that it will stand open thereafter

“Do in advance / for a purpose” is only a secondary implication (you want the effect to remain for later) — it is NOT the meaning. Textbooks teach the translation, not the machine.

Where “in advance/purpose” fails entirely:

• 閉じ込めておく = shut a child in her room — just leave the result in place
• 泣かせておく = let a baby cry — leave it in effect
• Alice 置いておいた (うまくとだなの一つへ通りすがりに) = she put the jar in a cupboard in passing — no future purpose at all, she just needed to get rid of it safely

Applied

5ラバーがいる可能性があるから、この情報を優先して書いておく！ “…because there’s a possibility there are 5 lovers — this information, I’ll prioritize and write-and-place!” = get this written down and leave it there (naturally reads as “for future reference”).

Contraction (speech): ておく → とく (書いとく), ておいて → といて. Constant in casual speech.

Source

Cure Dolly lesson 21 — てある/ている & ておく (kellenok.github.io/cure-script). Ebot lesson 2026-09-05.