Spanish to Japanese: an open window is not necessarily a window being opened
Read the event before matching the verb form
Spanish estar plus gerund can describe an action in progress, as the Spanish Universal Dependencies documentation illustrates. Japanese V-te imasu can also describe ongoing activity, but that is not its only interpretation. Matching the two constructions mechanically can therefore change a state into an action or an action into an already established result.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies contrasts ongoing activity with a state resulting from change. Its example 窓が開いています describes the window’s open state. The construction does not require somebody to be opening the window at that moment. Its reading depends on the verb and the situation, not simply the presence of the familiar te imasu ending.
For an original Spanish message about a meeting room, distinguish a window that is open from a colleague who is opening it. The first reports the room’s condition; the second reports an activity. A translation that supplies the ongoing opening event could make the reader wait for a task that the source already presents as a state.
A repeated activity need not be happening right now
The university lesson also gives わたしは毎朝ジョギングをしています for jogging every morning. Here a repeated activity is described, rather than a guarantee that the speaker is jogging during the conversation. A Spanish routine should retain its frequency information instead of acquiring an invented immediate scene.
Imagine a Spanish exchange arranging an early appointment. One person explains a usual morning exercise routine, then confirms today’s availability. If the Japanese translation turns the routine into an activity happening now, the reader may infer that the person cannot answer or leave yet. The source frequency expression and today’s arrangement need separate treatment.
Conversely, do not discard a genuine now reference just because the target construction can describe habits. A Spanish report of somebody exercising at this moment differs from a description of their ordinary schedule. Compare the time expressions as well as the verb, especially when a later sentence asks the reader to wait.
The person may already be away, rather than on the journey
A further university example answers a telephone inquiry by explaining that Mari has gone shopping. The lesson describes a result-location interpretation with movement verbs such as go, come and return: the relevant person is at the destination following the movement. This warns against assuming that every target te iru movement expression presents travel underway.
For a Spanish status message, being on the way to the shops, being away shopping and having returned home support different pickup plans. Preserve which stage the source actually reports. A recipient deciding whether to wait outside needs that distinction more than a word-for-word resemblance between the two verb phrases.
Review the translated message by drawing a simple event sequence: departure, travel, arrival, current activity and return. Mark only the stages the Spanish source establishes. Then check that the Japanese wording has neither added an unreported stage nor moved the person to another point in the sequence.
These Japanese constructions are useful because they express several kinds of temporal relationship economically. Their shared visible ending is not a universal progressive label. Let the source event, the selected target verb and the surrounding time information determine whether the reader should picture an activity, a routine or a resulting state.
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