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I could not find anything about it. What does it mean?

崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでてさ。

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Dav7n
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2 Answers2

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「読{よ}んで + て + さ」＝「読んで + いて + さ」

「いて」 (てｰform of the progressive 「いる」) is very often contracted to 「て」 in informal speech.

We say 「読んでて」、「見てて」、「食べてて」、「してて」, etc. You just cannot speak natural informal Japanese without using this いて-to-て contraction dozens of times a day.

Next, the sentence-ending particle 「さ」.

「さ」 is used to make a light and casual (and sometimes careless) kind of declaration. This sentence-ender does not have a clear meaning of its own. It is the kind of sentence-ender that some people use quite heavily out of a habit while others rarely do. Without exaggeration, some actually use it at the end of every phrase (or even word) like:

「あのさ、オレさ、昨日{きのう}さ、東京{とうきょう}でさ、トラブっちゃってさ、・・・」

In the real Japanese-speaking world, there is such thing as "one's go-to sentence-ender". Some go to 「よ」, some to 「ね」, some to 「さ」, etc. What type are you?

Here is an extremely famous children's song for you. Lyrics by a さ-type person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8T3CkQWaKI

  • Is いて the same as いる in my sentence? Because it's not a request at all. – Dav7n Jan 19 '17 at 00:56
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    But I never said or suggested that it was a request. Instead, I clearly stated that it was the progressive いて. All I said was that 「読んで（い）て」 was the te-form of 「読んで（い）る」 and 「読んで（い）た」. –  Jan 19 '17 at 01:36
  • Sorry for the misunderstanding, I said that due to some searches. Your answer was very clear. – Dav7n Jan 19 '17 at 01:44
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The さ on the end is one of those mood particles that gets added on the end of sentences, like よ or ね or わ. The て is an abbreviated いて, the conjunctive or -te form of いる, so 読んでいて is the verb part of the sentence here.

Try proceeding from this point and see if it makes any more sense to you. :)

Eiríkr Útlendi
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