Learn Hardcore Japanese: hi{kosite kara tomodati ga tikaku ni inakute, sukosi sabisii yoru ga tuduite iru. - Since I moved, I don’t have friends nearby, and lonely nights have continued a bit.

友達が近くにいなくて
- が marks 友達 as the grammatical subject: “(My) friends are not nearby.”
- It feels like neutral, factual description of the situation.
友達は近くにいなくて
- は makes 友達 the topic/contrast: “As for friends, they’re not nearby (but maybe something else is).”
- It can sound like you’re contrasting friends with other things (e.g., “Friends aren’t near me, but family is”).

In this sentence, the point is that the absence of friends nearby is the situation causing loneliness, so が as a simple subject marker is the most natural choice.

What is the role of に in 近くにいなくて? Why not just 近くいなくて or 近くで?

近くにいなくて breaks down as:

近く = nearby, close by (a place/area)
に = location marker with verbs of existence (いる・ある)
いない = not exist / not be (for animate things)

So 近くにいる = “to be nearby (to exist in the nearby area).”
Then 近くにいない = “are not nearby.”

If you say:

✕ 近くいなくて → missing the location particle; ungrammatical
近くで tends to be used with actions:
- 近くで遊ぶ = play nearby
- 近くで働く = work nearby

With existence verbs (いる / ある), you normally use:

場所 + に + いる / ある → “be at/in/on (place)”

So 近くにいなくて is the correct form: “(they) are not in the nearby area.”

Why is it いなくて instead of いません or いない?

いなくて is the て-form of いない (plain negative of いる). It’s used here to connect this clause to what follows and to express a reason for the following situation.

Structure of the sentence:

友達が近くにいなくて、少し寂しい夜が続いている。
→ Because friends aren’t near, slightly lonely nights are continuing.

In English we’d normally split it into two sentences or use “because/since,” but in Japanese:

Clause A (reason) in て-form + Clause B (result)

So:

友達が近くにいなくて = “(My) friends are not nearby, and because of that…”
Then the result: 少し寂しい夜が続いている.

If you said:

友達が近くにいません。少し寂しい夜が続いています。
It’s grammatical but more like two separate statements, less smoothly connected and a bit more formal/polished.

いなくて also makes it sound more natural and flowing in spoken or casual narrative Japanese.

Why is いなくて in plain form and 続いている also in plain form? Is this casual?

Yes, this sentence is in the plain (informal) style:

いなくて (plain て-form of いない)
続いている (plain progressive form)

Polite versions would be:

いなくて → often kept as-is (て-form often stays plain even in polite speech), or you can rearrange:
- 友達が近くにいないので、少し寂しい夜が続いています。
続いている → 続いています

So a fully polite version could be:

引っ越してから、友達が近くにいないので、少し寂しい夜が続いています。

The original feels like what you might say in a diary, to a friend, or as internal narration.

What exactly is 少し modifying here? Is it modifying 寂しい, 夜, or 続いている?

In 少し寂しい夜が続いている, 少し is modifying 寂しい, not 夜 or 続いている.

Breakdown:

少し = a little, slightly
寂しい = lonely
夜 = night
寂しい夜 = lonely nights
少し寂しい夜 = slightly lonely nights

So the meaning is:

“Slightly lonely nights are continuing.”

It’s not:

“Nights are continuing a little” (that would be expressed differently, e.g. 夜が少し続いている in a different context).

What is the subject of 続いている? Is it “I”? Is it “loneliness”? Or something else?

The grammatical subject of 続いている here is 夜 (nights).

Phrase:

少し寂しい夜が続いている。

So structure is:

(少し寂しい) 夜 = the subject (nights)
が = subject marker
続いている = are continuing / have been going on

Natural English:
“Somewhat lonely nights have been continuing.” or “I’ve been having slightly lonely nights.”

In Japanese, it’s very common to let things like 状況 / 時間 / 日々 (situations, time, days, nights, etc.) be the grammatical subject of 続く / 続いている.

How does 続いている work here? Is it like English “are continuing” or “have been continuing”?

続いている is:

続く = to continue
続いている (ている form) = a state of “being in the process of continuing.”

In English, depending on context, this often maps to:

present continuous: “(they) are continuing”
or present perfect continuous: “(they) have been continuing”

Here, because of 引っ越してから (“since I moved”) and the ongoing feeling, natural translations include:

“Slightly lonely nights have been continuing.”
“Slightly lonely nights keep going on.”

Japanese 〜ている often covers both “is doing” and “has been doing / is in a continued state.” Context decides the best English tense.

Could the sentence be 引っ越してから、少し寂しくて、夜が続いている instead? Why use 寂しい夜が続いている?

引っ越してから、少し寂しくて、夜が続いている would be strange or unclear: “Since moving, I’m a bit lonely, and nights are continuing” — but nights always continue, so it sounds off.

The original:

少し寂しい夜が続いている
- Treats 寂しい夜 (“lonely nights”) as the thing that is continuing.
- Focuses on a type of night that keeps happening.

If you wanted to say “I feel a bit lonely, and that feeling continues,” you’d more naturally say, for example:

引っ越してから、少し寂しい日々が続いている。 (Lonely days have been continuing.)
引っ越してから、少し寂しい状態が続いている。 (A slightly lonely state has been continuing.)

Using 寂しい夜が続いている is a compact, natural way to say “night after night has been a bit lonely.”

Could we say 引っ越したから instead of 引っ越してから? What would change?

Yes, 引っ越したから is grammatical, but the meaning shifts:

引っ越してから
- Vてから = “after doing V / since doing V” (time starting point)
- Emphasis: time — from the time of moving onward. → “Since I moved…”
引っ越したから
- Vた + から = “because (I) did V” (reason/cause)
- Emphasis: reason — because I moved. → “Because I moved, …”

Your original sentence is describing an ongoing situation from a point in time (“since I moved”), so 引っ越してから is the natural choice.
If you said 引っ越したから友達が近くにいなくて…, it sounds more like you’re explicitly emphasizing causal logic: “Because I moved, my friends aren’t nearby, so…” It’s not wrong, but the nuance is more analytical cause-and-effect, less about the time span.

What’s the difference between 友達が近くにいなくて and something like 友達が近くにいないので?

Both give a reason, but the tone and style differ:

友達が近くにいなくて、少し寂しい夜が続いている。
- 〜なくて as a connector:
  - Very common in spoken and casual narrative.
  - Softer, more directly flowing into the next clause.
- Feels like: “Friends aren’t near, so (as a result)…”
友達が近くにいないので、少し寂しい夜が続いている。
- 〜ので:
  - More explicit “because/since.”
  - Slightly more formal or explanatory/polite.
- Feels like: “Since (my) friends are not nearby, slightly lonely nights have been continuing.”

Both are correct; the sentence with なくて matches the overall casual, reflective tone of the original.

Is 引っ越す a normal verb or a する-verb? Why not 引っ越しして?

引っ越す is a regular godan verb (う-verb), not a する-verb.

Forms:

Dictionary: 引っ越す
ます-form: 引っ越します
て-form: 引っ越して

There is a noun 引っ越し (“moving”), and you will see:

引っ越しをする = to move (literally “do a move”)

But you don’t say:

✕ 引っ越しして as a standard conjugation of 引っ越す.
If you use the noun-plus-する version, it’s:
- 引っ越しをしてから、友達が近くにいなくて… (grammatical, but longer)

The common, more natural verb form is simply:

引っ越してから…