い抜き言葉

In Japanese, i-nuki kotoba い抜き言葉, "い-removed speech," refers to a way of talking that omits the i い at the start of auxiliary verbs attached to te-form, contracting te-iru ている into te-ru てる, te-iku ていく into te-ku てく, de-iru でいる into de-ru でる, and de-iku でいく into de-ku でく, and so on.

For example: miteru 見てる is a contraction of mite-iru 見ている, "to be seeing."

• Patterns
• Usage
• Examples

Patterns

To summarize, the patterns are:

• ~teru ～てる
  Comes from ~te-iru ～ている.
  • ~te-ta ～てた
    From ~te-ita ～ていた, the past form.
  • ~te-nai ～てない
    From te-inai ～ていない, the negative form.
  • ~te-masu ～てます
    From ~te-imasu ～ています, the polite form.
  • ~te-mashita ～てました
    From ~te-imashita ～ていました, the polite past form.
• ~teku ～てく
  Comes from ~te-iku ～ていく.
  • ~te-tta ～てった
    From ~te-itta ～ていった, the past form.
  • ~tekanai ～てかない
    From ~te-ikanai ～ていかない, the negative form.
  • ~te-kimasu ～てきます
    From ~te-ikimasu ～ていきます, the polite form.
  • ~te-kimashita ～てました
    From ~te-ikimashita ～ていきました, the past polite form.

The te-forms of some verbs end in de で instead, so these patterns also exist:

• ~deru ～でる
  • ~deta ～でた
  • ~denai ～でない
  • ~demasu ～でます
  • ~demashita ～でました
• ~deku でく
  • ~detta ～でった
  • ~dekanai ～でかない
  • ~dekimasu ～できます
  • ~dekimashita ～できました

There are a few things worth noting.

The difference between ~deta ～でた, "has been," and ~detta ～でった, "has gone," is just a small tsu っ.

• ita いた
  Existed.
  Was [somewhere].
• itta いった
  Went [somewhere].

The contraction ~te-nai ～てない is homonymous with another ~te-nai which means the opposite of ~te-aru ～てある instead.

• benkyou shiteru?
  勉強してる？
  Are [you] studying?
• benkyou shitenai
  勉強してない
  [I] haven't been studying.
• nani-ka kaite-aru?
  何か書いてある？
  Something has been written?
  Is there something written?
• nani-mo kaite-nai
  何も書いてない
  Even "something" has not been written.
  There is nothing written.
• Examples from: 「してない」や「やってない」は「い抜き言葉」？ - dora0.blog115.fc2.com, accessed 2019-07-21.

In particular, tanonde-aru 頼んである means something "has been requested," so tanonde-nai 頼んでない means "[it] has not" or "[you] have not requested [it]." These also resemble the copula de aru である, "is," and dewa nai ではない, "is not."

The contraction ~te-kimasu ～てきます is homonymous with another ~te-kimasu which means literally the opposite thing.

• iku 行く
  ikimasu 行きます
  To go.
• kuru 来る
  kimasu 来ます
  To come.

As you can see above, iku implies a movement outwards, away, while kuru implies a movement inwards, toward near. The kuru is an irregular verb and its polite form is kimasu, while for iku the polite form is ikimasu.

• hashitte-ikimashita
  走っていきました
  To run-and-go.
  To go running. To move away from here by running.
• hashitte-kimashita
  走ってきました
  To run-and-come.
  To come running. To move toward near here by running.

If the i い is dropped in ikimashita, it becomes indistinguishable from kimashita, which means the opposite thing. Fortunately, you can probably tell which one it is from context, and these two auxiliary verbs don't really matter much compared to the main verb they're suffixed to.

(in fact, iku can so easily replace kuru that I'm not even really sure -te-kimasu is really a contraction of te-ikimasu and not just te-kuru in polite form. But there's a source that says it is, using kitekimasu 着てきます, "wear and go," as example, so I guess it is.^{[い抜き言葉」はカジュアルな場面でのみＯＫ - writersskill.com, accessed 2019-07-21]})

Usage

Like most contractions, the i-nuki kotoba are considered casual speech, so it's advised to be avoided in formal situations.

In manga, it wouldn't be used in text balloons that contain narrations, for example, assuming the narrator is speaking in a serious or formal tone.

Like other contractions, it can and often will appear in text balloons contain the characters' speech.

Examples

For reference, some examples of i-nuki kotoba 居抜き言葉.

• miteru 見てる
  mite-iru 見ている
  mitemasu 見てます
  mite-imasu 見ています
  To seeing-be.
  To be seeing.
• miteta 見てた
  mite-ita 見ていた
  mitemashita 見てました
  mite-imashita 見ていました
  To have seen.
• kieteku 消えてく
  kiete-iku 消えていく
  kietekimasu 消えてきます
  kiete-ikimasu 消えていきます
  To disappear-go.
  To be fading away.
• kietetta 消えてった
  kiete-itta 消えていった
  kiete-kimashita 消えてきました
  kiete-ikimashita 消えていきました
  To have faded away.
• yonderu 呼んでる
  yonde-iru 呼んでいる
  yondemasu 呼んでます
  yonde-imasu 呼んでいます
  To calling-be.
  To be calling.
• yondeta 呼んでた
  yonde-ita 呼んでいた
  yondekimasu 呼んできます
  yonde-ikimasu 呼んでいきます
  To have called.
• shindeku 死んでく
  shinde-iku 死んでいく
  shinde-kimasu 死んできます
  shinde-ikimasu 死んでいきます
  To die-go.
  To be dying. To go on dying.
  To pass away.
• shindetta 死んでった
  shinde-itta 死んでいった
  shinde-kimashita 死んできました
  shinde-ikimashita 死んでいきました
  To have gone die.
  To have passed away.