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| sci.lang.japan FAQ / 8. Slang and colloquialisms |
These are contractions of the regular verb endings made with "te shimau" or "te wa". Some of the most frequent contractions are
| "Standard" verb ending | Contracted form | Examples and notes |
|---|---|---|
| -te forms (see 2.1.6. How does the te form work?) | ||
| -te shimau | -chau | For example makete shimatta (I lost) becomes makechatta |
| -te shimau | -chimau | |
| -de shimau | -jimau | For example shinde shimae! (literally "Go and die!", or "Go to hell!") becomes shinjimae!. See also 8.5. What are some Japanese insults and swear-words? |
| -te iru | -teru | |
| -te oku | -toku | |
| -te wa | -cha | For example, mane shite wa ikenai becomes mane shicha ikenai. |
| -de wa | -ja | For example nonde wa ikenai (don't drink) becomes nonja ikenai |
| -te wa shinai | -te ya shinai | This is an emphatic negative. |
| -te ageru | -tageru | yatte ageru yo ("I'll do it form you") becomes yattageru yo |
| Other verb forms | ||
| -ru no | -nno | For example nani o yatteiruno (What are you doing?) becomes nani wo yattenno? |
| -ranai | -nnai | For example shiranai `I don't know' becomes shinnai. |
| -nakereba | -nakya | |
| -nakute wa | -nakucha | For example tabenakute wa ikenai (must eat) becomes tabenakucha ikenai. Sometimes the ikenai is dropped too. |
The ending nai is often reduced to just n. De wa nai ka or ja nai ka may be contracted into jan, so, for example ii ja nai ka may become ii jan.
Constructions using to and the verb iu
, "to say", are often contracted. For example, to iu may be contracted to tte, and to ieba may be contracted into tteba. Similarly, ttara is a contraction of to ittara, meaning "if I/you say".Words other than verbs are also often contracted in a similar way:
| Non-colloquial | Colloquial |
|---|---|
| kore wa | korya |
| sore wa | sorya |
| are wa | arya |
| de mo | datte |
See also 8.6. What are itee and sugee?
This list was partly taken from a post by John Reeves.
Copyright © 1994-2011 Ben Bullock
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