~ている

[Astral Abraxas]

I am a bit confused on how Genki is explaining this.

(a) an action in progress, or
(b) a past event that is connected with the present

Which is fine if that was all it said. Basically what it says after is that there are 3 types of verbs:

1) verbs that describe continuous states
2) verbs that describe activities that last for some time
3) verbs that describe changes that are more or less instantaneous.

Says that:

- Only verbs I learned that are part of group1 are いる　and ある and they are never used with ている so no point in talking about it now.
- Group 2 verbs use ている in the sense of action in progress. (読んでいます・読んでいました(is reading/was reading)
- Group 3 verbs are used in past event that is connected with the present. (結婚しています(is married))

I have a hard time imagining past tense group3 if my interpretation of Genki is correct. Is it possible? Considering it's suppose to be connecting to the present?

[Sairana]

It doesn't say it's in past tense. It said it's something that -happened- in the past.

Someone learning the ~teiru form might come to the logical conclusion (by english standards) that 結婚している actually means "Is getting married (right now)". However, if I tell you, "結婚している", I am not in the middle of my wedding as we speak, but that I am married already.

Genki's explanation that it's a past event illustrates that "They became married, and so they still are".

[Yudan Taiteki]

結婚していた would then be "[At that time] they were married."

[Astral Abraxas]

When you would say things like

本を読みました
over
本を読んでいました。

etc then?　Is it just a preference thing?

[Yudan Taiteki]

When you would say things like

本を読みました
over
本を読んでいました。

etc then?　Is it just a preference thing?

No.

The first sentence means "I read the book." The second sentence means "I was reading the book" (or possibly "[At that time], I had read the book")

i.e.
"When Tanaka-san called me, I was reading a book."
*田中さんが電話した時、私は本を読みました。
田中さんが電話した時、私は本を読でいました。

"I read this book last year."
この本は去年読みました。
*この本は去年読んでいました。

"I had [already] read the book, so I didn't join the club."
あの本は[もう]読んでいたから、サークルには入らなかった。

[Mür]

That book looks really difficult. I think I know... nearly all of -teiru... But that classification makes grammar worse! OMG!

[NocturnalOcean]

That book looks really difficult. I think I know... nearly all of -teiru... But that classification makes grammar worse! OMG!

I don't see how those classifactions makes it worse?