Sentence Structure

[sexylexi]

Well, today I decided to test my skills and make a short dialogue. Here goes.

もしもし。
アレクシスくん、何をしていますか。
私は歩いています。
あなたのうちに行っていますか。
いいえ。私のうちに行きません。
どこに行っていますか。
店に行っています。
そうか。何を買いますか。
食べものを買います。

I'd appreaciate any feedback. Mainly if it is correct, and if there are any ways to make it better. Thanks in advance =)

[flammable hippo]

むしむし。(mushi mushi is telephone greeting right?)

lol . It's actually もしもし. I'm not laughing at you, this just reminded me of an hilarious conversation another Japanese student and I had about Americans trying to speak Japanese and using mushi mushi on the phone with their Japanese friends. You know, the people who have never studied Japanese but think they know a lot and try to use it and wind up looking really funny.

I'm not saying this is you though. I just had a flashback moment.

[sexylexi]

Oh really? Thats kinda funny. I remember seeing this movie and i could have sworn the guy said mushi mushi. Although I did find it weird that people would say insect insect to answer a phone LOL. oh well thanks. i'll change it.

[tanuki]

You have most of the "continuatives" wrong. The first one is right (しています), but the rest are wrong. You have to put the polite in the end (in the いる), not in the te-form.

Not 歩きましている, but 歩いています
Not 行きましている,　but 行っています

[sexylexi]

So to make a polite continuative, you change it to -te form and put the masu at the end? Anything else I did wrong?　And so when are you supposed to use -iru or is this simply the non polite form?

[flammable hippo]

Another thing is that for motion verbs like iku, kuru, etc the te iru form usually means "have you..." rather than "are you...". so itteimasu is more like "have gone" rather than "am going". So for this, just saying for example mise ni ikimasu, can mean i'm going to the store while mise ni itteimasu means "i have gone to the store." At least this is what Genki said.

[sexylexi]

i was thinking of just using ikimasu, but i thought that would either mean i will go or i go which isnt what i was trying to say. I don't know, it just doesnt make sense to me how the present progressive can mean the present perfect o.o and so when would you use ikimashita?

[Yudan Taiteki]

I don't know, it just doesnt make sense to me how the present progressive can mean the present perfect o.o

Thinking of Japanese in terms of English grammar will rarely make sense. ている is not a "present progressive"; one of its uses is the progressive for certain verbs, but other times it means a resultant state. With certain verbs, such as 行く, it can *only* be resultant state.

[sexylexi]

mise ni ikimasu. mise ni ikimasuka? iie mise ni ikimasu. mise ni ikimasuka? iie mise ni ikimasu. aa mise ni ikimasu. hai
translation~ I'm going to the store. You will go to the store? No I'm going to the store. You go to the store? No I'm going to the store. Oh! You're going to the store. Yes

[Stefan]

LOL

[seiryuu]

Geez, that wasn't very helpful.

Everything looks good to me.