I encountered the phrase 〜してないで in a song lyric, and it struck me as ungrammatical. Shouldn’t it be 〜しないで? Is 〜してないで an informal version of 〜していないで or something?
It seems to be the later. The -ている construction (as well as its inflections such as -ていない) often drops the い and contracts to -てる (or -てない) in colloquial speech
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It seems to be the later. The -ている construction (as well as its inflections such as -ていない) often drops the い and contracts to -てる (or -てない) in colloquial speech
It could also be the negation of 〜てある (afaik)
しているー＞してる
しておくー＞しとく
there’s a lot of contractions