遅刻している vs 遅刻する for saying "I am late." I'm trying to figure out if I should use or for expressing "I am late to..." For example, I was thinking, "Not only am I late to my first day on the job, but I've gotten lost, too." I thought this was correct, but since already means "to be late/tardy", is the resultant state redundant? Also, a similar question for . Should I be using the past tense here or the resultant state? Thanks.

In its original sense, refers to a punctual act of arriving late. So, if you are talking about a late arrival that is likely to happen, you should use .

>
> Not only I’m going to be/arrive late on my first day on the job, …

However, is also fine as it is understood as referring to either one of the following two states.

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> a) Not only I’m (running) late for work on my first day on the job, …
> b) Not only I’m making the mistake of being/arriving late on my first day on the job, …

The first is about the fact of being late, whereas the second sounds like an answer to the self-accusatory question of _What am I doing?!_ I know these two are different, but I’m find it hard to explain...

When said about yourself, or would be understood similarly to (b) above. It’s good as a statement about an ongoing state of another person.

or refers to the event of getting lost that has already happened and thus put you in the current state.