ら抜き - Can this ever be confusing?

Question

So for ra-nuki, I think it is when an ichidan verb's potential form removes the ra. This makes it distinct from it's passive form. However, I believe the potential form of the godan equivalent verb would be exactly the same.

Does this ever cause confusion in spoken speech?

• 着る (Ichidan) - 着れる regular potential form
• 切る (Godan) - 切れる ra-nuki form of potential

In spoken speech, this is exactly the same. I personally like ra nuki; however, is this more troublesome than the potential confusion between passive and potential that the current rareru structure causes? As now different verbs share conjugations which seems concerning to me, but realistically, I don't think this would ever get mixed up in the current state of the language.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, there are very few verb pairs that potentially have this problem, and they have different pitch accent patterns when conjugated to potential forms:

• 着: きれる【LHH】^★ can wear
• 切: きれる【LHL】 can cut
• 変: かえれる【LHHH】^★ can change
• 帰: かえれる【LHHL】 can go back

^{★: nonstandard ra-nuki. 居る/要る are also an ichidan/godan pair, but the potential form of 要る is not used.}

By the way, some potential forms look and sound identical to the dictionary form of a different verb (even without ra-nuki):

• 買: かえる【LHH】 can buy
• 変: かえる【LHH】 to change
• 会: あえる【LHL】 can meet
• 和: あえる【LHL】 to dress (on salad/vegetable)