Nuki kotoba [い抜き言葉] - Taking the [い] and [ら] out of casual Japanese

In this article, I will give you a very important tip to make your Japanese sound more natural. Japanese people casually drop the letter i [い] from some verbs, and this is called I nuki kotoba [い抜き言葉] or ra nuki kotoba [ら抜き言葉].

The omission of the letter i [い] or ra [ら] occurs in several grammatical constructions and mainly at the end of them. It is a way of abbreviating words and is likely related to language habits, which is why it is treated as something informal.

The Japanese omit these noble words when they wish to create a solid atmosphere with close friends through email, messages, social networks, and blogs. The same thing happens sometimes when particles [は] and [を] are omitted.

I Nuki Kotoba [い抜き言葉] and RA NUKI KOTOBA [ら抜き言葉]

In I Nuki Kotoba [い抜き言葉] you must remove the letter i [い] from expressions and verbs. You can follow the patterns and examples below. Basically [teiru] becomes [teru] and [deiru] becomes [deru].

• 「ている」→ 「てる」
• 「でいる」→ 「でる」
• 「しています」→「してます」
• 「いました」→「ました」
• 「いられなかった」→「られなかった」
• 「している」→「してる」
• 「きている」→「きてる」
• 「いきます」→「きます」

In the case of "ra" [ら], it is omitted in potential verbs that end in rareru [られる], becoming only reru [れる]. See the examples below:

• 「食べられる」 → 「食べれる」
• 「喋られる」 → 「喋れる」
• 「教えられる」→ 「教えれる」
• 「見られる」→「見れる」

Japanese words being omitted from sentences

To complement the article, we will show in practice how the Japanese tend to omit words in their sentences using some examples below. Hope you enjoyed the tips in the article. We appreciate the comments and shares.

First we have the phrase written in a standard and formal way, below we have the phrase casually spoken among Japanese in an informal way. Note that not only hi [い] or [ら] are hidden, but even some words and particles.

1 - In the first example we have someone saying they are on the phone with a friend.

今、友達と電話をしています。
Ima, tomodachi to denwa o shite imasu;

VIRA

友達と電話してます。
Tomodachi to denwa shitemasu;

2 – In the second example we have someone who was watching TV earlier.

さっきはテレビを見ていました。
Sakki wa terebi o mite imashita.

VIRA

さっきテレビ見てました。
Sakki terebi mitemashita.