Ra-nuki Kotoba: The "Dropped ら" Phenomenon in Japanese Potentials

Ra-nuki kotoba (ら抜き言葉, "dropped-ら words") is the spoken variant in which the potential suffix ～られる is reduced to ～れる by deleting the syllable ら. That is why 見られる becomes 見れる and 食べられる becomes 食べれる.¹ It is not careless speech. It is a systematic change that removes ambiguity and has a documented, dated rise. Knowing when it is safe to use helps you sound natural in conversation without losing marks on an exam.¹²

This article assumes you already know the potential form and the 一段/五段 verb classes. For the full potential conjugation, see the dedicated article, which introduces ら抜き briefly and links here for the deep dive.

Overview

The change has one narrow target: the potential of 一段 verbs and the irregular 来る. In these forms, the suffix ～られる loses its ら and appears as ～れる.²³ What remains, the ～れる, still carries the potential meaning. Only the ら drops.³¹

The payoff is precision. The standard ～られる has four possible readings. Dropping ら marks the form as potential and nothing else.¹⁴ That precision helps explain why the variant has spread, even while prescriptive authorities still reject it in formal Japanese.¹⁵

What Is Ra-nuki Kotoba?

The basic substitution

The term ら抜き literally means "ら pulled out."¹ Ito and Mester gloss it as the case where "the potential suffix -rare is alternatively realized in a reduced form as -re by deleting the syllable ra."¹

The key point is which piece drops. It is the ら, not the whole ～れる. 見られる becomes 見れる, 食べられる becomes 食べれる, and 来られる becomes 来れる.³¹ The ～れる that stays behind still signals "can do."³

NINJAL's ことば研究館 states the rule plainly: when the potential of a 一段 verb or the カ変 verb 来る appears as ～れる rather than ～られる, that form is called ら抜き言葉.²

昨日きのうはよく寝ねれた。¹
"I was able to sleep well last night."

ここからは出でれません。¹
"You cannot get out from here."

Both examples are the ら抜き variant of attested standard forms (寝られた, 出られません) given by Ito and Mester.¹ The phenomenon is not new. An early literary attestation, or recorded example, comes from the 大正 period:

その花はなの一ひとつも見みれずに追おひ立たてられて行いく…⁴
"Driven out without even being able to see a single one of those flowers..."

ら抜き forms appear in casual writing, not just speech

Ito and Mester record that ら抜き forms are "considered substandard in textbooks and prescriptive grammars" yet "are abundantly observed in speech as well as in casual/informal writing." Their May 2003 web counts returned 38,400 hits for 寝られた against 52,300 for 寝れた, with similar margins across many verbs.¹

Which verbs are affected, which are not

Only 一段 verbs (上一段 and 下一段) and the irregular カ変 verb 来る form their potential with ～られる. So only these can undergo ら抜き.³² The three model cases:

Verb class	Dictionary form	Standard potential	ら抜き form
上一段	見る	見られる	見れる
下一段	食べる	食べられる	食べれる
カ変	来る	来られる	来れる

五段 verbs are not subject to ら抜き, because their potential never contained ら in the first place.¹ Their potential ends in ～える (読む becomes 読める, 行く becomes 行ける). It attaches directly, with no ら to drop.¹ As Ito and Mester put it, for consonant-final (五段) stems "the potential allomorph is -e, and there is no variation."¹

This is why 帰れる, the potential of the 五段 verb 帰る, is the original correct form and is not ら抜き at all.² NINJAL contrasts it directly with 着れる, the potential of the 一段 verb 着る, which is ら抜き.²

The split tracks the underlying stem shape. Ito and Mester divide verb stems into vowel-final V-stems (the 一段 class, e.g. tabe- "eat", mi- "see") and consonant-final C-stems (the 五段 class, e.g. yom- "read", kak- "write").¹ The potential suffix has the V-stem allomorph, or variant form, ～rare and the C-stem allomorph ～e. ら抜き reduces only the V-stem allomorph.¹

The branching below shows why the phenomenon can only reach one class.

A 五段 potential ending in れる is not ら抜き

Because 帰れる, 切れる, and 知れる come from 五段 verbs, they are standard, not ら抜き. The ら抜き label applies only when a 一段 verb or 来る has lost a ら it originally had.²

Why It Happens: The Disambiguation Payoff

The られる ambiguity problem

The ～られる that builds the 一段 and 来る potential sounds the same as three other ～られる suffixes. As summarized in 張 (2009), the auxiliary ら（れる）carries four meanings: 受身 (passive), 尊敬 (honorific), 自発 (spontaneous), and 可能 (potential).⁴

So 見られる, taken in isolation, can mean "can see" (potential), "be seen" (passive), "(an esteemed person) watches" (honorific), or "comes into view" (spontaneous).⁴

Ito and Mester identify this same sound-alike problem as the central issue: "the passive suffix is homophonous with the potential suffix... ranuki creates a distinction between the potential and the passive forms."¹ Their footnote adds that the overlap with the honorific "might be, from a practical point of view, even more pernicious than the homonymy with the pure passive."¹

先生せんせいによく褒ほめられた。¹
"I was often praised by the teacher."

子供こどもには見みられたくない。¹
"I don't want to be seen by my children (in such a situation)."

Both of these are passive readings, and the passive ～られる has no ら抜き variant.¹ Ito and Mester note the same for the honorific. 先生が帰って来られた ("the teacher returned," honorific) cannot become 来れた.¹ Because passive and honorific forms keep their ら, dropping ら becomes an unambiguous signal of "potential."¹

The spontaneous reading rounds out the set. 自発 attaches to perception and cognition verbs (案じられる, "one can't help worrying"). Together with 受身, 尊敬, and 可能, it makes up the four meanings of ～られる that 見れる rules out.⁴

見れる reads as potential, full stop

Once ら drops, only the potential meaning survives. This is the functional motivation for the whole change.

Ito and Mester analyze ら抜き as the output of a paradigm-contrast pressure. Their constraint ParContrast says that "the cells of a paradigm are pair-wise phonologically distinct." In plain terms, the system pushes the potential form to sound different from the identical-sounding passive form.¹ They are careful to show that this is not general homonymy-avoidance, nor a dislike of r…r sequences, which Japanese freely allows (霰 arare, 連れる tsureru). It is a contrast effect specific to the potential paradigm.¹

The diagram captures the collapse. The four readings of the standard form reduce to one under ら抜き.

It is also a regularization toward the 五段 pattern. NINJAL frames 見れる and 食べれる as the 一段 and 来る potential being reshaped on the model of the 五段 可能動詞 (potential verb, as in 読む to 読める). The result is that every potential ends in ～える and is marked distinctly from the passive.² In 真田's (2006) terms, relayed by 張 (2009), this is a 分裂 (splitting the four-way ～られる into a dedicated 可能動詞) working alongside a 統合 (the 一段 and カ変 conjugation being absorbed into the 五段 pattern).⁴

The 第20期国語審議会 (20th National Language Council, 1995) records the same rationale. By its report, using 見れる solely for the 可能 meaning and distinguishing it from the 受身・自発・尊敬 見られる is 合理的 (reasonable). Some argue that such forms should be recognized as 可能動詞 on the 五段 model. Even so, the council declined to endorse the usage, treating it as an error in 共通語 at the present time.⁵

Hear ら抜き as a built-in "can" marker

When a speaker says 来れる instead of 来られる, they have told you in one syllable that they mean "can come" and not "comes" (honorific) or "be visited upon" (passive). The dropped ら is doing the work that context would otherwise have to do.¹⁵

Prescriptive Disapproval vs. Descriptive Reality

The prescriptive verdict

The 第20期国語審議会 report (1995) is the standard prescriptive reference. It concludes that in 共通語 the ら抜き form is regarded as an error (誤り) and is hardly used in newspapers (新聞等ではほとんど用いられていない). It also judges that ら抜き言葉 in 改まった場 (formal settings) cannot be recognized.⁵

Ito and Mester record the same social status from the descriptive side: the forms are "considered substandard in textbooks and prescriptive grammars" and are "stigmatized by grammar mavericks as sloppy and lazy pronunciation."¹ Schools, formal writing, business writing, and the JLPT all use the ～られる potential.²⁵

What the surveys actually show

The 文化庁 国語に関する世論調査 (Agency for Cultural Affairs survey on the Japanese language) has run annually since 平成7年度 (1995).⁶ The key wave for ら抜き is the 平成27年度 (2015) survey, published in 2016.⁷

The 平成27年度 (2015) survey was the first wave since the series began in 平成7 (1995) in which ら抜き forms became the majority for some verbs.⁸⁹ The 文化庁's own commentary attributes the rise to disambiguation. Adding ら makes it hard to tell potential from passive, so speakers drop ら to convey intent precisely. Wider use then breeds familiarity, and familiarity leads to still wider use.⁹

The per-verb figures from the 平成27年度 (2015) survey, asking which form respondents ordinarily use across all ages, are verb-specific:⁷

Verb	ら抜き form	ら-form	Result in the 2015 survey
見る (past)	見れた 48.4%	見られた 44.6%	ら抜き majority for the first time
出る	出れる 45.1%	出られる 44.3%	ら抜き majority for the first time
食べる (neg.)	食べれない 32.0%	食べられない 60.8%	ら-form still well ahead overall
来る	来れる 44.1%	来られる 45.4%	ら-form still ahead

The precise, defensible reading is that ら抜き crossed over for 見れた and 出れる in the 平成27年度 (2015) wave. Those are the two cases the 文化庁 itself flags as overtaking the ら-form for the first time. 来れる and 食べれない did not cross over: 来られる still led 来れる, and 食べられない led 食べれない 60.8% to 32.0% overall.⁷ The headline finding is verb-by-verb, so the blanket claim "ら抜き is the majority" overstates what this survey showed.⁷

Age is where the gradient is steepest. In the same 平成27年度 (2015) survey, the 16–19歳 group reported 見れた at 76.2% against 見られた at 16.7%. They also reported 出れる at 60.7% against 出られる at 32.1%, 来れますか at 57.1% against 来られますか at 36.9%, and 食べれない at 48.8% against 食べられない at 41.7%.⁷¹⁰ The 70歳以上 group reported 見れた at just 30.6%.⁷

The starting point of the series sets the contrast. The 文化庁 平成7年度 (1995) survey found a majority still preferring the ら-forms 食べられない, 来られる, and 考えられない over their ら抜き equivalents. In other words, the ら抜き form was the minority across the board when the survey began.⁵

The age gradient predates the 2015 survey by decades

A 国立国語研究所 (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics) 1974 Tokyo survey already recorded a steep age gradient for 見れる: 20.4% among speakers in their 60s, rising through 43.4% in their 30s and 56% in their 20s to 76.2% among teenagers.⁴ The 平成27年度 (2015) figures confirm a long-running pattern. They are not the start of one.⁴

Register, Age, and Where to Use It

Speech vs. writing, casual vs. formal

ら抜き is a spoken and casual-writing phenomenon. Ito and Mester describe it as "abundantly observed in speech as well as in casual/informal writing" while treated as substandard in formal contexts.¹ 張 (2009) characterizes it as a 話し言葉 (spoken-language) expression used mainly among young people in close relationships (若者の間で親しい間柄, "close relationships among young people").⁴

It is avoided in 改まった場 (formal settings) per the 第20期国語審議会 and is largely absent from newspapers.⁵ NINJAL notes the form's low rate in 書き言葉 (written language) and warns that formal-setting use can be problematic.²

For a learner, the practical split is clean. ら抜き is accepted in casual conversation, but avoided in formal speech, business and academic writing, and on the JLPT. Those contexts use ～られる.²⁵

Age and regional patterns

Age is the single most prominent factor. As reported in 張 (2009), Matsuda (1993) found that, controlling for region and sex, age difference was the most conspicuous factor. Speakers in their 20s and teens used ら抜き far more than those 30 and above.⁴ 井上 (1991) found that below the 50s bracket the ら抜き type "surges," reaching "nearly 90% among the young."⁴

The change is close to nationwide among younger speakers. 井上 (1998), per 張 (2009), reports that speakers who were middle-schoolers up through the 1980s show essentially nationwide ら抜き use. Some regional difference remains among older speakers, but it is nearly gone among the young.⁴

The regional origin runs deeper than the modern spread. ら抜き is thought to have moved from dialect into 共通語. 松下大三郎 (born 1878 / 明治11年) recorded that his home 静岡県 (Tōkai) dialect already had potentials like 逃げレル and 受けレル in the Meiji period. The earliest 共通語 records are from 昭和初期 in the speech of Tokyo 山の手 students (来れない, 見れない).⁴ 鈴木 (1994) cites the 大正期 writer 葛西善蔵 as an early literary attestation.⁴

Broadcast and editorial standards

ら抜き is hardly used in newspapers, per the 第20期国語審議会, reflecting standing editorial style policy.⁵ NINJAL notes the form's low rate in 書き言葉 (written language) and says that formal-setting use can read as unpolished.²

For learners, the dependable rule is simple: scripted, written, and formal Japanese keeps the ら.²⁵

Good to know

The れ足す言葉 over-correction

ら抜き has a mirror image. れ足す言葉 (re-tasu, "added れ") inserts an extra れ into 五段 potentials. It produces non-standard forms like 行けれる, 読めれる, and 書けれる, where the intended potentials are 行ける, 読める, and 書ける.¹¹

The wrong forms and their fixes:

行いける、読よめる、書かける
"can go, can read, can write (the correct 五段 potentials, not 行けれる / 読めれる / 書けれる)"

The 五段 可能動詞 already encode potential with ～える, so adding ～れる is redundant. 浅川 (2021) glosses 行けれる as 「行くことができることができる」, an excess "can be able to go" meaning.¹¹ Where ら抜き removes a mora from the 一段 potential, れ足す adds one to the 五段 potential. Some commentators frame れ足す as a hypercorrection prompted by ら抜き awareness.

Don't confuse ら抜き with い抜き

い抜き言葉 is a separate casual reduction, and lumping the two together is a common error. い抜き drops the い from the ～ている and ～ています auxiliary: している becomes してる, しています becomes してます.¹² 大辞林 glosses てる as a transformation of ている, a colloquial casual form (「ている」の転。話しことばでのくだけた言い方, "a casual spoken way of saying ている").¹²

The two affect different morphemes, or meaningful word parts. ら抜き removes ら from the 一段 and 来る potential suffix. い抜き removes い from the progressive and resultative ている auxiliary. They are unrelated phenomena, and a learner should keep them apart.¹²

A quick test for the exam room

If the dictionary form is a 一段 verb or 来る, the JLPT- and textbook-safe potential keeps its ら: 見られる, 食べられる, 来られる.²⁵ The regularized ～れる forms (見れる, 食べれる, 来れる) are for casual speech only.

The counter-check is just as fast. If the dictionary form is a 五段 verb, there is no ら to worry about; 読める, 行ける, and 帰れる are already correct and are not ら抜き.¹²

見れる is older than it looks

ら抜き is not an internet-era slang form. It is documented in 共通語 from 昭和初期 (Tokyo 山の手 students), in the 静岡 / Tōkai dialect back to the Meiji period, and in a 大正期 literary attestation by 葛西善蔵.⁴ Reading 見れる as an older, dialect-rooted regularization, rather than as lazy speech, matches the linguistic record.⁴

See also

• Potential Form: ～られる, ～える, できる
• Passive Voice (受身形): Direct and Indirect Passives
• Sonkeigo via the Passive Form (～られる): The Respectful Use of れる・られる
• Japanese Verb Groups: 一段, 五段, and Irregular
• Casual Speech (タメ口): How Native Speakers Actually Talk

References

Footnotes

1. Ito, Junko, and Armin Mester. "Morphological contrast and merger: ranuki in Japanese." Journal of Japanese Linguistics 20, 2004, pp. 1–18. https://people.ucsc.edu/~mester/papers/2004_ito_mester_ranuki.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰

2. 国立国語研究所 (NINJAL), ことば研究館. 「外国人に対する日本語教育でも『ら抜き言葉』を教えた方がいいですか」(ことばの疑問 / よくある質問). https://kotoba.ninjal.ac.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-129/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. 新村出 編. 『広辞苑』第5版, 岩波書店, 1998. Entry 「ら抜き言葉」(p. 2779), as cited verbatim in ⁴. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. 張麗. 「話し言葉の表現としてのラ抜き言葉に関する研究概観」. 『コーパスに基づく言語学教育研究報告』No.1, 東京外国語大学, 2009, pp. 173–189. https://cblle.tufs.ac.jp/assets/files/publications/working_papers_01/section/173-189.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

5. 文化庁. 第20期国語審議会「新しい時代に応じた国語施策について（審議経過報告）」, Ｉ 言葉遣いに関すること (1995 / 平成7). https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kakuki/20/tosin03/09.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

6. 文化庁. 「国語に関する世論調査」(annual survey, run every year since 平成7年度 / 1995). Landing page and archive. https://www.bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/kokugo_yoronchosa/index.html ↩

7. 文化庁. 平成27年度「国語に関する世論調査」の結果について (results published 2016 for the 平成27 / 2015 survey). Summary PDF h27_chosa_kekka.pdf and full report 92701201_04.pdf, linked from the archive page. https://www.bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/kokugo_yoronchosa/index.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

8. itmedia ねとらぼ. 「『ら抜き』言葉が初の多数派に　文化庁の『国語に関する世論調査』」, 2016. Report of the 平成27 / 2015 survey figures. https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1609/21/news129.html ↩

9. 日本経済新聞. 「食べれる・見れる…ら抜き言葉、初の多数派」, 2016. Report of the 平成27 / 2015 survey including 文化庁 commentary. https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLASDG21H9K_R20C16A9CR8000/ ↩ ↩²

10. リセマム (ReseMom). 「10代の76％『見れた』…ら抜き言葉が多数派に」, 2016. Report of per-verb and per-age figures from the 平成27 / 2015 survey. https://resemom.jp/article/2016/09/23/33920.html ↩

11. 浅川哲也 (東京都立大学教授).「『ら抜き言葉』が進行した『れ足す言葉』が、明らかに『誤用』だと断言できる理由」, 現代ビジネス (講談社), 2021-07-09. 「『れ足す言葉』は、『行けれる・読めれる・書けれる・飛べれる』などという言い方です」; explains the 可能動詞 already carries potential meaning, so 行けれる reads as the excess 「行くことができることができる」. https://gendai.media/articles/-/84627 ↩ ↩²

12. 松村明 編. 『大辞林』, 三省堂. Entry 「てる」. ↩ ↩² ↩³