te imasu or te iru, please help!!!

[aisukuremu]

Hi so I have recently learned about the result of using the '~te' form of verbs and adding 'imasu'. I know that this makes the verb a continuous thing, for example 'tabemasu' meaning 'I eat', when changed to 'tabete imasu', it means 'I am eating.' Right?

I have a problem, because I was looking up how to talk about my hobbies. Such as listing all the things I like to do. I then came across the form '~te iru' because it was used when saying "My hobbies are, listening to music, watching movies" etc So in Japanese it was written 'Watashi no shumi wa, ongaku o kiite iru to eiga o mite iru, etc.."

I learned that 'te iru' also makes the verb a continuous thing, so they both have the same function but I am confused why 'te iru' was used in that case and not 'te imasu'. I'm not sure how you would decide which one to use.

I was thinking that maybe you use 'te imasu' when you are saying something you are actually doing, like I am eating, I am watching a movie, etc and 'te iru' only when you just want to make the verb progressive on its own. Sort of like when you use the verb as a noun? Or am I wrong?

So I was trying to say "I like speaking Japanese" and I came up with all these different forms I am not sure which is correct or I could use:

1. "Nihongo o hanashite iru ga suki desu."
2. "Nihongo o hanashite imasu ga suki desu"
3. "Nihongo o hanasu koto ga suki desu" (I know this one uses neither but I wonder if this form it's still a correct way of saying it)

or 4. something else?

I would imagine either the first and the third are correct, but I want to be clearer on why and how to distinguish the two.

Please help?

[Trinitywarrior1]

こんにちは。Hello, aisukuremu.

They both have the same function of meaning doing something continuously. The only difference is that ています is politer, while ている is more informal. One other things is that you have to add こと to a verb clause to treat it like a noun. What I mean is that if you want to describe a verb clause like eating sushi you have to attach こと to it describe it. in you example you would 日本語で話していることが好きです。, you add the こと because you are talking about speaking in Japanese. The reason I used で above is because you are talking using Japanese, it is the means by which you are speaking. This is a site I use to help me understand grammar. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/verb_clauses Hope I was able to help you.　頑張ってください。Do your best.じゃ、また。 Later.

[aisukuremu]

こんにちは。Hello, aisukuremu.

They both have the same function of meaning doing something continuously. The only difference is that ています is politer, while ている is more informal. One other things is that you have to add こと to a verb clause to treat it like a noun. What I mean is that if you want to describe a verb clause like eating sushi you have to attach こと to it describe it. in you example you would 日本語で話していることが好きです。, you add the こと because you are talking about speaking in Japanese. The reason I used で above is because you are talking using Japanese, it is the means by which you are speaking. This is a site I use to help me understand grammar. http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/verb_clauses Hope I was able to help you.　頑張ってください。Do your best.じゃ、また。 Later.

Thank you so much! This has helped a lot you have no idea! I really appreciate it. Also, thanks for mentioning about で. That is really cool and forgot I can use that.

[community.japanese]

Trinitywarrior1 san,
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for helping aisukuremu san.

Aisukuremu san,
Konnichiwa.
Firstly, the difference between ‘I like watching movies’and ‘I am watching movies now’is the part of speech.
The word ‘watching’in‘I like watching movies’is a gerund and not a verb.
However the word ‘watchin’in ‘I am watching movies now’is a verb.
As you know a gerund is a noun.
When you want to translate English gerund to Japanese, it’s dictionary form + koto.
As a result of this ‘I like watching movies’becomes ‘eiga o miru koto ga suki desu.’
You don’t need to use ‘teiru’here.
The correct sentence is ‘nihongo o hanasu koto ga suki desu.’

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com