てある・ておく・ている: Reporting preparation under time pressure
山田さん is the newest member of a four-person 営業 team. At 13:40, twenty minutes before a 14:00 meeting with six visitors from a client, his 先輩 says, 「悪いけど、会議室、見ておいてくれる？」 The room has twelve copies of the agenda stacked on the table, the air conditioner is running, and both windows are open. On the whiteboard someone has written 「資料：12部」「窓：しめる」「エアコン：そのまま」. 山田 has studied 〜てある, 〜ておく and 〜ている as separate grammar points but has never had to choose between them while a 先輩 waits for an answer. He did not make the copies himself. He has three minutes to report back before the visitors arrive at the entrance.
1. 山田 wants to tell his 先輩 that the copies are already on the table but that he did not make them. Choose between 「資料はコピーしてあります」「資料はコピーしておきました」「資料はコピーしています」 and explain what each of the two rejected forms would wrongly imply.
Read the worked answer
- Correct: 「資料はコピーしてあります」. 他動詞＋てある describes a state that exists because someone intentionally acted. The person is deliberately left out. Since 山田 did not do it, this is the only form that is both true and useful: it tells the 先輩 the preparation is finished.
- 「コピーしておきました」 - 〜ておく marks an action the speaker performed as a preparation. Using it here would claim credit for someone else's work. It is the right form only if he had done it.
- 「コピーしています」 - with a transitive verb this reads as progressive ("is copying") or habitual. The 先輩 would think someone is still at the machine, or that copying happens regularly - not that the stack on the table is ready.
- Exam habit to build: ask who did it and what the listener needs to know. 〜てある = finished state, doer irrelevant; 〜ておく = I did it for a purpose; 〜ている = in progress / habitual.
2. At 13:50 山田 shuts the windows and the 先輩 asks, 「窓、どうなってる？」 Which reply fits best - 「窓は閉めておきました」「窓は閉まっています」「窓は閉めてあります」? Then decide what he must do about the air conditioner, given 「エアコン：そのまま」 on the whiteboard.
Read the worked answer
- Best reply: 「窓は閉めておきました」. The 先輩 is asking about the task, so the answer should report the action 山田 just took for the meeting. 〜ておく = deliberately did X so that the later situation is right.
- 「閉まっています」 is not wrong Japanese, but it only reports a state and hides who acted - it sounds like an observation of the room, not a report that the instruction was carried out.
- 「閉めてあります」 is grammatical and does emphasise the resulting state, but it backgrounds 山田's action; it suits a later explanation ("the windows are kept shut because..."), not a just-completed task.
- Air conditioner: leave it running. 「そのまま」 triggers the second use of 〜ておく - maintain a state: 「つけっぱなしにしておきます」. If he read it as 「つけておく」 ("switch on in advance") he would not switch anything off either, but he would misunderstand the instruction; the danger is a learner who hears 〜ておく only as "prepare" and turns the unit off to "reset" the room.
3. 山田 notices twelve copies but only six visitors are expected. Why is 「6部に減らしておきました」 a risky action and a risky sentence, and what should he say instead?
Read the worked answer
- The whiteboard number may already include 山田's own side (他 three team members may join), spares, or a plan the 先輩 made for a reason he cannot see. Six is an assumption, not a fact.
- 「減らしておきました」 uses 〜ておく, which presents the act as a considered preparation. It sounds authorised: the 先輩 hears "I judged this and acted", so if the assumption is wrong, 山田 owns the mistake as well as the missing copies. Copies cannot be un-shredded.
- Safe move: report the fact and let the owner of the plan decide - 「資料は12部ありましたが、このままでよろしいですか」. If told to reduce, then 〜ておく becomes correct: 「では6部にして、残りはそのままにしておきます」 (here そのままにしておく = leave the rest untouched, the same "maintain" use as the air conditioner).