～ておる
humble or archaic progressive
～ておる is made by taking the て-form of a verb and adding おる, a humble or formal equivalent of いる. The meaning is the same as ～ている (“is doing” or a resulting state) only the level of politeness changes.
You will hear it constantly in customer service and business Japanese as ～ております, and you will also meet it in dialects and old-fashioned speech.
1. Humble speech (talking about yourself or your group)
In polite settings, use ～ております instead of ～ています to speak modestly about your own actions, or those of your company or family.
お待ちしております。
“I am (humbly) waiting for you.” / “We look forward to seeing you.”
- お待ち（おまち）= waiting (humble form of 待つ, to wait)
- して = doing (て-form of する)
- おります = polite form of おる, the humble version of いる
2. Dialect and old-fashioned speech
In western Japan and in literary or old-fashioned style, ～ておる simply replaces ～ている with no humble meaning. In fiction it is a typical way to mark elderly speakers.
おじいさんは昔のことをよく覚えておる。
“Grandpa remembers the old days well.”
- おじいさん = grandfather, old man
- は = topic marker
- 昔（むかし）= old days, long ago
- の = linking particle (of)
- こと = things, matters
- を = object marker
- よく = well
- 覚えておる（おぼえておる）= remembers
How to form it
Verb て-form + おる（in polite speech, ～ております）
- 待つ（まつ）= to wait → 待っております（まっております）= am waiting (humble)
- する = to do → しております = am doing (humble)
- 知る（しる）= to know → 知っております（しっております）= know (humble)
Key idea
～ておる means the same thing as ～ている. What changes is the register: as ～ております it is humble and polite, while plain ～ておる is often dialectal, literary, or old-fashioned.
Built on the same stem
Updated .