LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

USING 고 있다 WITH POSITION VERBS

You learned that you cannot add ~고 to position verbs. Examples of these verbs were:

앉다 - to sit
서다 - to stand

Specifically, I said:

"These position verbs usually act differently than regular verbs (not just in this situation, but in many situations)."

~고 있다 is another situation where these position verbs act differently than regular verbs.

First of all, adding ~고 있다 to these verbs can be done. For example:

저는 앉고 있다 - I am sitting – but note that this only means that you are actually in the process of sitting; as in, you are currently bending your knees getting ready to sit.
"저는 앉고 있다" is grammatically correct, but you need to ask yourself when you would ever say this.

What you want to say, is "I am (in the state of) sitting"... as in, your butt is on the floor/on a chair, etc.. If you want to do this, you have to add ~아/어 있다 to these verbs instead of ~고 있다. For example:

나는 앉아 있어 - I'm sitting
나는 학교 옆에 서 있어 - I'm standing next to the school
나는 침대에 누워 있어 - I'm lying in bed

In theory, this is the same concept that you used when you added ~아/어 있다 to "state" like words. For example:

컴퓨터가 켜져 있어요 - The computer is (in the state of) on
TV가 꺼져 있어요 - The TV is (in the state of) off
문이 잠겨 있어요 - The door is (in the state of) locked

One more time, for good measure:

나는 서고 있다 - This means that you are currently in the process of standing up – which probably wouldn't be said... especially since Korean people have a specific word for "getting up" – 일어나다.
나는 서 있다 - This means that you are in the state of standing (probably what you want to say in almost every situation)

Another common word that this is used with is 살다. You learned how you can use ~고 있다 with 살다. For example:

저는 한국에서 살고 있어요 - I live in Korea

By adding "~아/어 있다" to 살다, you can create the meaning of "in the state of living" (as in, the opposite of dead. For example:

그 돼지는 살아 있어요 - That pig is living (alive)
그 소는 살아 있지 않아요 - That cow isn't living (alive)