Confused over 「ろうそくが置かれている」


I encountered this sentence.

「ろうそくが置かれている」

I can tell from context it means something like "Candles are placed", but I'm
confused about the usage of ている with a transitive verb. Genki tells me that
ている goes with intransitive verbs, yet 置かれる is the passive form of 置く which is
transitive. What am I missing?




> 「ろうそくが[置]{お}かれている。」

does **_not_** really mean " ** _Candles are placed_**." as you stated. That
would be 「ろうそくが **置かれる** 。」.

「ろうそくが **置かれている** 。」 can mean two different but related things.

  1. Passive Voice + Present Progress: " ** _Candles are being placed_**." ← Someone is in the middle of placing candles. 

  2. Passive Voice + State: " ** _Candles have been placed_**." ← Candles were placed some time ago and they are still there.

Which one it means would depend solely on the context it appears in as
Japanese is an incredibly contextual language.

> "Genki tells me that ている goes with intransitive verbs."

I am afraid to say that that is false. The transtivity of the verb does not
matter.




> 「ろうそくが[置]{お}かれている。」

does **_not_** really mean " ** _Candles are placed_**." as you stated. That
would be 「ろうそくが **置かれる** 。」.

「ろうそくが **置かれている** 。」 can mean two different but related things.

  1. Passive Voice + Present Progress: " ** _Candles are being placed_**." ← Someone is in the middle of placing candles. 

  2. Passive Voice + State: " ** _Candles have been placed_**." ← Candles were placed some time ago and they are still there.

Which one it means would depend solely on the context it appears in as
Japanese is an incredibly contextual language.

> "Genki tells me that ている goes with intransitive verbs."

I am afraid to say that that is false. The transtivity of the verb does not
matter.

