文法Grammar Point
〜てある has been done (resultant state): Meaning & Examples
te aru · JLPT N4
〜てある means “has been done (resultant state)”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern, shown below in the sentences where real Japanese writers use it, with furigana on every word.
〜てある (has been done (resultant state)) in real sentences
Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.
The te-form plus ある describes a state someone left behind on purpose: it has been written, and it is still written there.
親展と朱肉で捺してあるのである。
— from The Story of the Letter Received by the Prime Minister (N1)
本の中に「ショウタ」と名前が書いてあります。
— from The Gap on the Shelf (N5)
胡蓙の中に包んであった彼の衣服を執って見せた。
— from The Daughter's Living Ghost (N1)
石に、名前が書いてあった。
— from Every Morning at the River (N5)
Appears in 6 of 379 texts in our library.
蔵書The texts
6 texts in the library use 〜てある
Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.
解説Background
Where this 〜てある explanation comes from
〜てある sits at JLPT N4 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜てある and pull its example sentences out of them.
The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (The Story of the Letter Received by the Prime Minister and The Gap on the Shelf among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.
質問Questions
〜てある: questions & answers
What does 〜てある mean?
〜てある means “has been done (resultant state)”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern, and the example sentences on this page show it doing that job in published Japanese rather than in a constructed example.
What JLPT level is 〜てある?
〜てある is normally introduced around JLPT N4. The texts listed on this page span several levels, because a pattern taught at N4 keeps turning up in writing well above and below it.
How do I get 〜てある to stick?
Read it rather than review it. Meeting 〜てある in 6 different stories attaches it to 6 contexts you remember, where reviewing the rule 6 times attaches it to nothing. Every text listed here is free to read in full.
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