ら抜き言葉（ことば） is the single most talked-about change in living Japanese: in casual speech, the 一段 potential 食べられる loses its ら and becomes 食べれる（"can eat"）. It sounds slangy to older ears and is still red-penned in exams and business writing, yet it is spreading steadily and does one thing the textbook form cannot — it tells "can eat" apart from "gets eaten." This page is the reference for exactly which verbs drop the ら (only 一段 and 来る), which never can (all 五段, because they dropped it centuries ago), and where the form is safe versus proscribed. The anchor is 食べる → 食べられる → 食べれる.
What ら抜き is, in one line
The full potential of a 一段 verb is stem + られる. ら抜き simply deletes that ら: られる → れる. Nothing else moves.
| Class | Dictionary | Standard potential | ら抜き (colloquial) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 一段 | 食べる (taberu) | 食べられる (taberareru) | 食べれる (tabereru) |
| 一段 | 見る (miru) | 見られる (mirareru) | 見れる (mireru) |
| 一段 | 起きる (okiru) | 起きられる (okirareru) | 起きれる (okireru) |
| 一段 | 出る (deru) | 出られる (derareru) | 出れる (dereru) |
| 来る (irregular) | 来る (kuru) | 来られる (korareru) | 来れる (koreru) |
| 五段 | 書く (kaku) | 書ける (kakeru) | — (no ら to drop) |
ねえ、これ生でも食べれる？
nē, kore nama demo tabereru?
Hey, can you eat this raw? (casual — ら抜き)
ごめん、今日は早く帰らなきゃで、飲み会には出れないんだ。
gomen, kyō wa hayaku kaeranakya de, nomikai ni wa derenai n da
Sorry, I have to leave early today, so I can't make it to the drinks. (casual — ら抜き 出れない)
後ろの席からでも、ちゃんと画面見れてる？
ushiro no seki kara demo, chanto gamen mireteru?
Can you see the screen okay even from the back seats? (casual — ら抜き 見れてる)
Why 五段 verbs are untouched — they did this 300 years ago
The most common misconception is that ら抜き is a sloppy new invention. It is neither new nor sloppy — it is the 五段 potential's history repeating itself one class later. The 五段 potential 書ける is a contracted られ-form: Edo-period 書かれる（"can write"）collapsed to 書ける. 五段 verbs finished shedding their ら centuries ago, which is exactly why there is no ら left in 書ける to drop. When 一段 verbs turn 食べられる into 食べれる today, they are running the identical simplification — just later.
The one genuine merit: it disambiguates the triple られる
Here is the payoff that makes ら抜き more than laziness. For a 一段 verb, the full 食べられる is spelled identically across three meanings — potential ("can eat"), passive ("gets eaten"), and honorific ("[a respected person] eats"). ら抜き 食べれる can only mean potential. Dropping the ら surgically removes the passive and honorific readings, so 一段 speech gains the same clean split that 五段 verbs always had (書ける "can write" looks nothing like 書かれる "gets written").
Watch the ambiguity, then the fix:
朝五時に起きられる。
asa goji ni okirareru
Ambiguous: 'I can get up at 5 a.m.' / '(a respected person) gets up at 5 a.m.' — 起きられる carries both readings.
朝五時に起きれる自信がない。
asa goji ni okireru jishin ga nai
I'm not confident I can get up at 5 a.m. (起きれる can only be potential — the ら-drop kills the other readings)
このケーキ、母に全部食べられた。
kono kēki, haha ni zenbu taberareta
My mother ate the whole cake (on me). (passive — the ら is mandatory here)
That last example is the flip side: the passive keeps its ら. So the division of labour is tidy — られる for the passive/honorific, れる for the potential — and that clarity is the real engine behind the change.
来る is the irregular: 来れる = これる
来る follows the 一段 pattern, giving 来られる（こられる）→ ら抜き 来れる（これる）. The reading is the trap: 来れる is これる, not ×きれる. Because 行く is 五段, 行ける never had a ら — so a sentence mixing "can go" and "can come" naturally pairs 行ける with the ら抜き 来れる:
週末なら、そっちに行けるし、パーティーにも来れると思う。
shūmatsu nara, sotchi ni ikeru shi, pātī ni mo koreru to omou
If it's the weekend, I can head over, and I think I can make the party too. (casual — 行ける 五段, 来れる ら抜き)
予約してくれたら、この時間でも一人で来れるよ。
yoyaku shite kuretara, kono jikan demo hitori de koreru yo
If you book it for me, I can come on my own even at this hour. (casual — 来れる = koreru)
Register: where it is fine and where it is not
This is the part that matters for real-world use. ら抜き is (informal) — unremarkable in conversation, texting, TV variety shows, and dialogue. But it is still counted nonstandard in (formal)/(academic) writing: essays, JLPT and school exams, résumés, news copy, and business email all expect the full 食べられる, 見られる, 来られる. When in doubt, write the ら.
会員登録をすれば、過去の記事もすべて見られます。
kaiin tōroku o sureba, kako no kiji mo subete miraremasu
If you register as a member, you can view all past articles too. (written/formal — full 見られます)
お客様は、こちらの入口からお入りになれます。
okyakusama wa, kochira no iriguchi kara ohairi ni naremasu
Customers may enter through this doorway. (formal signage — the standard form)
The mirror error: れ足す言葉 (adding a stray れ)
Overcorrection produces the opposite mistake, れ足す言葉（"れ-adding words"）: sticking an extra れ onto a 五段 potential — ×行けれる for 行ける, ×読めれる for 読める. This is not the historical 五段 change; it is a hypercorrection, regarded as (nonstandard) everywhere, casual speech included. 五段 potentials are already complete (行ける, 読める); they take nothing more.
Common mistakes
❌ この字、まだ小さくて読めれる？
Wrong — 読む is 五段, so its potential is 読める (already ら-less). Adding れ (れ足す言葉) is a hypercorrection.
✅ この字、まだ小さくて読める？
kono ji, mada chiisakute yomeru?
This writing is still small — can you read it? (五段 potential 読める takes nothing extra)
❌ 報告書はオンラインで見れます。
Wrong register — a written report is formal; ら抜き 見れます is nonstandard in business writing. Use the full 見られます.
✅ 報告書はオンラインで見られます。
hōkokusho wa onrain de miraremasu
The report can be viewed online. (formal/written — full 見られます)
❌ このケーキ、母に全部食べれた。
Wrong — you mean the passive 'was eaten', but ら抜き 食べれた can ONLY mean potential ('could eat'). The passive keeps its ら.
✅ このケーキ、母に全部食べられた。
kono kēki, haha ni zenbu taberareta
My mother ate the whole cake (on me). (passive requires 食べられた)
❌ 明日、パーティーにきれる？
ashita, pātī ni kireru?
Wrong reading — 来れる is これる (こ-row), not きれる. きれる would be a different verb (切れる, 'to run out').
✅ 明日、パーティーに来れる？
ashita, pātī ni koreru?
Can you come to the party tomorrow? (casual — 来れる = koreru)
Key takeaways
- ら抜き drops the ら of the 一段 potential: 食べられる → 食べれる, 見られる → 見れる, 来られる → 来れる（これる）.
- Only 一段 verbs and 来る can do it. 五段 verbs cannot — 書ける already lost its ら centuries ago, which is the same change happening now to 一段.
- Its real merit is disambiguation: 食べれる can only be potential, splitting it off from the passive/honorific 食べられる. The passive/honorific keep the ら.
- Register: fine in (informal) speech and texting; still (nonstandard) in exams, essays, news, and business writing — write the ら there.
- Beware the opposite error, れ足す言葉 (×行けれる): 五段 potentials are already complete.
Now practice Japanese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- Potential Form: Formation TableN4 — The one-shape reference for 'can do': 五段 walk to the え-row and add る (書く→書ける), 一段 add られる (食べられる), する→できる, 来る→来られる — plus the を→が object shift and the ら抜き shortcut.
- Passive 受身: Formation TableN4 — The one-shape reference for the passive: 五段 walk to the あ-row and add れる (書く→書かれる), 一段 add られる (食べられる), する→される, 来る→来られる — with the わ-insertion trap and the three-meanings-one-shape collision on 一段 verbs.
- 食べる: Full 一段 ParadigmN5 — The complete eleven-form paradigm of 食べる (taberu) — the model 一段 verb whose every form is just 'drop る, add the ending' with zero sound change, and whose potential, passive, and honorific are all the identical 食べられる.
- ら抜き vs Honorific られる ConfusionN2 — Casual Japanese drops the ら from ichidan potentials (食べれる for 食べられる), but that same られる is also the honorific and passive — so in keigo you must keep every ら, both to stay formal and to preserve the honorific reading — though context still has to disambiguate which sense is meant.
- 〜れる／られる: The Honorific Passive-FormN2 — The lightest honorific, built exactly like the passive — 五段 to the あ-row + れる, 一段 + られる — with the fully regular ます-conjugation and the three-jobs-one-shape ambiguity that context has to resolve.