What are the chau, cha verb endings?

These are contractions of the regular verb endings made with te shimau or te wa. For example tabete shimau, meaning "eat up", becomes tabechau, with the auxiliary verb shimau contracted into the te form of taberu. (For more on the "te" form of the verb ending, see How does the te form work?)

These are some of the most frequent contractions used in everyday Japanese.

"Standard" verb ending	Contracted form	Examples and notes
-te forms
-te shimau ～てしまう	-chau ～ちゃう	Makete shimatta (負けてしまった) ("We lost") becomes makechatta (負けちゃった) or makechimatta (負けちまった)
-te shimau ～てしまう	-chimau ～ちまう
-de shimau ～でしまう	-jimau ～じまう～ぢまう	Shinde shimae! (死んでしまえ) (literally "Go and die!", or "Go to hell!") becomes shinjimae! (死んじまえ). (See also What are some Japanese insults and swear-words?)
-te iru ～ている	-teru ～てる	Shitte iru (知っている) ("I know") becomes shitteru} (しってる).
-te oku ～ておく	toku ～とく	Tamete oku (貯めておく) ("save up") becomes tametoku (貯めとく).
-te wa ～ては	-cha ～ちゃ	Mane shite wa ikenai (真似してはいけない) ("don't copy that") becomes Mane shicha ikenai (真似しちゃいけない).
-de wa ～では	-ja ～じゃ	Nonde wa ikenai (飲んではいけない) ("don't drink") becomes nonja ikenai (飲んじゃいけない)
-te wa shinai ～てはしない	-te ya shinai ～てやしない	This is an emphatic negative.
-te ageru ～てあげる	-tageru ～たげる	Yatte ageru yo (やってあげるよ) ("I'll do it for you") becomes yattageru yo (やったげるよ).
Other verb forms
-ru no ～るの	-nno ～んの	Nani o yatte iru no (何をやっているの) ("What are you doing?") becomes nani wo yattenno? (何をやってんの)
-ranai ～らない	-nnai ～んない	Shiranai (知らない) 'I don't know' becomes shinnai (知んない).
-nakereba ～なければ	-nakya ～なきゃ
-nakute wa ～なくては	-nakucha ～なくちゃ	Tabenakute wa ikenai (食べなくてはいけない) ("You must eat") becomes tabenakucha ikenai (食べなくちゃいけない). Sometimes the ikenai is dropped too.
Negative -nai ～ない	n ん	Kuwanai (喰わない) ("I won't eat it") becomes kuwan (喰わん). This is more emphatic than the form with "nai".
De wa nai ka ではないか	jan じゃん	Ii ja nai ka (いいじゃないか) becomes ii jan (いいじゃん).
Ja nai ka じゃないか 1	jan じゃん	Ii ja nai ka (いいじゃないか) becomes ii jan (いいじゃん).
-nai ～ない	-nee ～ねえ～ねー	For example, iranai (要らない) becomes iranee (要らねー). See also What are itee and sugee?

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 (いいじゃないか) may become ii jan (いいじゃん). This "n" ending is also used in phrases like shiranpuri (知らんぷり), "pretending not to notice".

Constructions using to and the verb iu, "to say", are often contracted. For example, to iu may be contracted to tte, and to ieba (といえば) may be contracted into tteba (ってば). Similarly, ttara is a contraction of to ittara, meaning "if I/you say".

The words kore, sore, and are are also often contracted in a similar way, as is de mo.

Non-colloquial	Colloquial
kore wa これは	korya こりゃ
sore wa それは	sorya そりゃ
are wa あれは	arya ありゃ
de mo でも	datte だって

References

Drohan, Francis G., A handbook of Japanese Usage
McClain, Yoko Matsuoka, Handbook of Modern Japanese Grammar, p. 231 "Extremely Colloquial Expressions".

Acknowledgements

This list was partly taken from a post by John Reeves.

If you have questions, corrections, or comments, please contact Ben Bullock or use the discussion forum / Privacy policy


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