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I came across this in a manga, and I still can't figure out what the ちゃいない means. Does any help please?

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    Contraction of 見てはいない?
    – user3856370
    Mar 17, 2021 at 22:00
  • Context is always good. I agree with @user3856370's contraction suggestion, but more context would help us to be more certain in that interpretation.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Mar 18, 2021 at 0:24

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It's almost certainly a contraction of 見てはいない ("[someone] is not seeing it" or "[someone] has not seen it"). It can also be a contraction of 見てしまいなさい ("Watch it anyway!") at least in one western dialect I know, but it's rare.

In casual speech, ては very often contracts to ちゃ (and では contracts to じゃ). See Purpose of adj+kucha and noun+ja in this sentence for example.

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I am sure that you will sometimes find the expression 見ちゃいない in a manga, because this expression is very colloquial and used in daily conversation. I think the following expressions can arranged in the order of formality. 見てはいない、見ていない、見てない、見ちゃいない。

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