Open your ears in Tokyo, or your eyes on any manga page or streaming subtitle, and you will meet 見れる (mireru) and 食べれる (tabereru) constantly. Textbooks teach the standard potentials 見られる and 食べられる, but a huge share of real speech drops the ら. This is ら抜き言葉 (らぬきことば, literally "ra-removed speech"), and it is not a typo or a mistake to be scolded out of learners — it is a live, well-documented sound change. You need to recognize it everywhere and understand where it is and isn't appropriate to use.
What ら-nuki is
ら-nuki takes the standard -られる potential and deletes the ら, leaving -れる:
| Verb | Standard potential | ら-nuki (casual) | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 食べる (to eat) | 食べられる | 食べれる | taberareru → tabereru |
| 見る (to watch) | 見られる | 見れる | mirareru → mireru |
| 起きる (to get up) | 起きられる | 起きれる | okirareru → okireru |
| 出る (to leave) | 出られる | 出れる | derareru → dereru |
| 来る (to come) | 来られる（こられる） | 来れる（これる） | korareru → koreru |
The crucial restriction: ら-nuki only touches ru-verbs and 来る — the exact verbs whose potential is built with -られる. The u-verb potentials (書ける, 飲める, 話せる) never had a ら in the first place, so there is nothing for ら-nuki to remove. If someone tells you "just drop the ら to sound casual," that advice applies to 食べられる and 見られる, never to 書ける.
この量、一人で食べれる?
kono ryō, hitori de tabereru?
Can you eat this whole amount by yourself?
明日、早く起きれるかな。
ashita, hayaku okireru kana
I wonder if I can get up early tomorrow.
ごめん、今日は行けないけど、明日なら来れるよ。
gomen, kyō wa ikenai kedo, ashita nara koreru yo
Sorry, I can't make it today, but I can come tomorrow.
Why it exists: it is disambiguation, not sloppiness
This is the point that competing explanations miss. The standard ru-verb form -られる is famously three-way ambiguous — 食べられる is simultaneously the potential, the passive, and the honorific. Dropping the ら quietly fixes that: 食べれる can only mean "can eat." No one uses ら-nuki for the passive or the honorific.
この番組、ネットでも見れるから、録画しなくて大丈夫だよ。
kono bangumi, netto demo mireru kara, rokuga shinakute daijōbu da yo
You can watch this show online too, so you don't need to record it.
Where it fits — and where it does not
ら-nuki is a matter of register, so mark it as such rather than as right/wrong:
- (informal) — natural in conversation, texting, manga, variety TV, YouTube, and subtitles. Among younger speakers, and historically in parts of central and western Japan (regional: 中部・関西など), the ら-less form is often the default, not a lapse. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' annual language survey has tracked ら-nuki forms overtaking the full forms in casual speech for several short verbs.
- (nonstandard in writing) — avoid it in essays, exam answers, business email, official documents, and news copy. Broadcasters and editors treat 見れる as an error and "correct" it back to 見られる. In a JLPT or a school test, write the full form.
So the rule for a learner is simple: understand it always, produce it only in casual contexts. When in doubt — anything written or formal — keep the ら. More on the casual register lives on the casual speech page.
面接では「見られます」と丁寧に言ったほうがいい。
mensetsu de wa “miraremasu” to teinei ni itta hō ga ii
In an interview it's better to say 'miraremasu' properly.
The mirror-image error: れ足す言葉
There is an opposite over-correction worth knowing so you don't confuse the two. Some speakers add an extra れ to u-verb potentials — 行ける → 行けれる, 読める → 読めれる. This is れ足す言葉 (retasu kotoba, "re-added speech"), and unlike ら-nuki it has no disambiguating payoff; it is simply nonstandard in every register. ら-nuki removes a ら from -られる; れ足す inserts a れ into -eる. Don't do the second one at all.
漢字がだいぶ読めるようになってきた。
kanji ga daibu yomeru yō ni natte kita
I've gradually gotten to where I can read a fair amount of kanji.
Common mistakes
❌ 作文に「この本は図書館で借りれます」と書いた。
sakubun ni “kono hon wa toshokan de kariremasu” to kaita
Incorrect for writing — in an essay use the standard 借りられます, not the ら-nuki 借りれます.
✅ この本は図書館で借りられます。
kono hon wa toshokan de kariraremasu
You can borrow this book at the library.
Using ら-nuki in formal writing is the error that costs learners points. It is fine in a text to a friend; it is marked wrong in an essay or exam.
❌ ケーキが弟に食べれた。
kēki ga otōto ni tabereta
Incorrect — this is a passive ('was eaten'), and ら-nuki never applies to the passive; it marks potential only.
✅ ケーキが弟に食べられた。
kēki ga otōto ni taberareta
The cake was eaten by my little brother.
ら-nuki is potential-only. The passive and honorific keep their ら always — that restriction is the whole reason the device works as a disambiguator.
❌ 明日なら早く行けれるよ。
ashita nara hayaku ikereru yo
Incorrect — 行く is godan, so 行ける is already complete; adding れ (行けれる) is れ足す言葉, not ら-nuki.
✅ 明日なら早く行けるよ。
ashita nara hayaku ikeru yo
If it's tomorrow, I can go early.
❌ 「見れる」は間違いだから絶対に使わないほうがいい。
“mireru” wa machigai da kara zettai ni tsukawanai hō ga ii
An over-strict view — 見れる isn't simply 'wrong'; it's the normal casual form and you'll hear it everywhere.
✅ 「見れる」は会話では普通で、書き言葉では「見られる」を使う。
“mireru” wa kaiwa de wa futsū de, kakikotoba de wa “mirareru” o tsukau
'Mireru' is normal in conversation; in writing use 'mirareru'.
Key takeaways
- ら-nuki drops the ら of the -られる potential: 見られる → 見れる, 食べられる → 食べれる, 来られる → 来れる.
- It only affects ru-verbs and 来る — u-verb potentials (書ける) never had a ら to lose.
- It is a real disambiguation: 食べれる can only mean "can eat," unlike the three-way 食べられる.
- Register: (informal) and increasingly the spoken default, but nonstandard in writing and formal speech — recognize it always, keep the ら when writing.
- The mirror error, adding れ to u-verb potentials (行けれる), is れ足す言葉 — nonstandard everywhere.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- Potential Formation by Verb ClassN4 — How to build the potential form class by class — られる for ru-verbs, the -eる shift for u-verbs, and the suppletive できる / 来られる irregulars.
- The Potential Form: Expressing 'Can'N4 — An introduction to the potential form 可能形 — the stative conjugation that turns a verb into 'can / is able to,' and why its object leans toward が.
- Casual Plain Speech: Features & FeelN4 — Casual Japanese (タメ口) is not polite Japanese with the ます chopped off — it is its own system of omission, contraction, and particle color, and speaking it well is an active skill that signals closeness.