〜てる: The Casual Contraction of ている | Japanese Grammar

Turn on any Japanese drama, podcast, or conversation between friends and you will barely hear the textbook 〜ている. What you hear is 〜てる: 何してるの？, ご飯食べてる, 雨降ってる. This is not a different grammar point — it is 〜ている with one sound knocked out. Spoken Japanese drops the い of いる, and ている becomes てる. Learn to hear that deleted い and a huge amount of "fast, slurred" speech suddenly resolves into forms you already know.

今、何してるの？

ima, nani shiteru no

What are you doing right now?

外、雨降ってるよ。

soto, ame futteru yo

It's raining outside.

The one rule: delete the い of いる

The contraction is mechanical. Take 〜ている and remove the い:

Full form	→ Contracted	Meaning
している	してる	is doing
食べている	食べてる	is eating
知っている	知ってる	knows
読んでいる	読んでる	is reading
飲んでいる	飲んでる	is drinking

The voiced branch behaves identically: verbs whose te-form ends in で (読んで, 飲んで, 遊んで) give でいる → でる (読んでる, 飲んでる, 遊んでる). Nothing else changes. The meaning is byte-for-byte identical to the full form; only the register shifts, from neutral to casual.

この曲、知ってる？

kono kyoku, shitteru

Do you know this song?

弟は部屋でゲームやってる。

otōto wa heya de gēmu yatteru

My little brother is playing games in his room.

💡

〜てる is not new grammar — it is 〜ている with the い of いる deleted. Whenever a spoken form looks like an unfamiliar 〜てる／〜てた／〜てない／〜てて, mentally reinsert the い and you'll find the ている you already know.

It conjugates across the whole paradigm

This is the part that unlocks real listening. The い-drop is not a one-off shortcut for the plain present — it applies everywhere いる appears in the ている paradigm. Since いる is an ichidan verb, every one of its inflections loses that い:

Full form	Contracted	Meaning
食べている	食べてる	is eating (present)
食べていた	食べてた	was eating (past)
食べていない	食べてない	isn't eating / hasn't eaten
食べています	食べてます	is eating (polite-casual)
食べていて	食べてて	is eating, and… (te-form)

昨日の夜、ずっと勉強してた。

kinō no yoru, zutto benkyō shite ta

I was studying all last night.

ごめん、まだ準備できてない。

gomen, mada junbi dekite nai

Sorry, I'm not ready yet.

That 食べてた is the past of ている — "was eating" — and English speakers routinely mis-expand it. It is not the plain past 食べた ("ate"). 食べた reports one finished event; 食べてた describes an action that was ongoing over a stretch of past time. Reinsert the deleted い and the difference is obvious: 食べた vs 食べていた.

電話したとき、シャワー浴びてた。

denwa shita toki, shawā abite ta

When you called, I was in the shower.

The 〜てて trap: two consecutive te-forms

The form that most often stops learners cold is 〜てて — as in 話してて, 待っててね, 音楽聞いてて. It looks like a doubled て with no verb. It isn't: it is 〜ていて (the te-form of ている, used to link clauses) with the い deleted. 話していて → 話してて.

さっき電話してて、メッセージに気づかなかった。

sakki denwa shitete, messēji ni kizukanakatta

I was on the phone earlier and didn't notice your message.

ちょっとここで待っててね。

chotto koko de mattete ne

Wait here for a sec, okay?

Once you know 〜てて = 〜ていて, requests like 座ってて ("stay seated"), 見てて ("keep watching"), 持ってて ("hold onto this for me") stop being mysterious. They are all "be in the state of doing X (for me)."

💡

〜てて = 〜ていて (the te-form of ている) with い gone. It's how you say "keep doing / be doing X, and…" — 待っててね "wait for me," 見てて "watch this."

〜てるんだ and further reductions

Casual explanatory sentences stack the contraction with んだ (the explanatory の/んだ): 〜ているんだ → 〜てるんだ. And in very relaxed speech ている can reduce even further to てん before の, giving 〜てんの.

最近、ジムに通ってるんだ。

saikin, jimu ni kayotteru n da

I've been going to the gym lately, you see.

ねえ、何やってんの？

nē, nani yatten no

Hey, what are you doing?

何やってんの is 何をやっているの run all the way down. These further reductions are firmly (informal) — great for understanding friends, not for essays.

Register: where 〜てる belongs and where it doesn't

〜てる is (informal): conversation, texting, chat, casual narration. In writing that has any formality — essays, reports, business email, news, official documents — you keep the full 〜ている. Writing 食べてる in a work email reads the way "gonna / wanna / kinda" reads in an English cover letter: not wrong Japanese, just wrong setting.

There is a useful middle rung, though: 〜てます (食べてます, 待ってます). Here the いる contracts but the polite ます stays, giving a tone that is polite yet relaxed — the register of friendly service staff, casual-polite conversation, and personal-but-courteous messages. It sits between plain 〜てる and formal 〜ています.

お待ちしてます。またぜひ来てくださいね。

omachi shite masu. mata zehi kite kudasai ne

We'll be waiting for you. Please do come again. (polite-casual)

今、駅の前で待ってるから、着いたら連絡して。

ima, eki no mae de matteru kara, tsuitara renraku shite

I'm waiting in front of the station, so message me when you arrive.

Common mistakes

❌ 昨日、ずっと本を読んでた（レポート本文）。

Incorrect for formal writing — 読んでた is spoken casual; in a report keep the full 読んでいた.

✅ 昨日、ずっと本を読んでいた。

kinō, zutto hon o yonde ita

I was reading all day yesterday. (writing / formal)

❌ 電話したとき、ご飯を食べた。

Wrong expansion — if you meant the contracted 食べてた ('was eating'), the full form is 食べていた, not the plain past 食べた ('ate').

✅ 電話したとき、ご飯を食べてた。

denwa shita toki, gohan o tabete ta

When you called, I was eating.

✅ 本を読んでる。

hon o yonderu

I'm reading a book.

The recurring theme: 〜てる is a spoken reduction of いる, so (1) don't carry it into formal writing, (2) expand it back to the full ている form — not to the plain past — when you parse it, and (3) delete only the い, never the て/で of the underlying te-form.

Key takeaways

〜てる = 〜ている with the い of いる deleted. Identical meaning, casual register.
The い-drop is systematic across the paradigm: てる (present), てた (past = was doing), てない (negative), てます (polite-casual), てて (linking te-form).
〜てて = 〜ていて — the source of 待っててね, 見てて, 座ってて.
Expand 食べてた to 食べていた ("was eating"), never to 食べた ("ate").
Keep the full 〜ている in any formal writing; 〜てる belongs to speech and chat.

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