I know the form ている, but is there any other form like just てる without an い between ?
This is the sentence that I'm confused with : 写真の右に写ってる小物が気になります。なんやろね？
3 Answers
It' a colloquial -ている.
Maybe my ears deceive me but I often hear younger children producing it in that way. It's also how I formed it for quite some time when I first started learning Japanese.
〜ている is very often shortened informally to 〜てる. It's not rude, but it is non-standard. You actually also hear 〜てます rather than ています, though again this is non-standard Japanese and isn't something you'd typically do when talking to your boss, as it may come-off too casual.
Grammatically, both these forms are identical to their alternative standard forms, though, and while 〜ている is common in written Japanese, 〜てる is often used in speech by all ages, though more so amongst children. 〜ている is often more used, but 〜てる is definitely not uncommon in speech (and writing designed to mirror speech)
Yes, -てる is simply the colloquial form of -ている。
