〜てやがる: The Contemptuous 'Doing' Form (軽蔑) (Meaning + Examples)
Marking contempt toward someone's action
〜てやがる reports an action while signaling the speaker's disdain, irritation, or anger at the person doing it — never used about oneself, and rarely about someone the speaker respects.
あいつ、また遅刻してやがる。
あいつ、また ちこくしてやがる。
That guy's late again, the nerve.
あいつ (that guy) is a common blunt pronoun pairing with やがる.
何、笑ってやがるんだ。
なに、わらってやがるんだ。
What are you laughing about, huh?!
Confrontational, spoken directly at someone.
ライバルのキャラが、また先に進んでやがる。
ライバルの キャラが、また さきに すすんでやがる。
The rival character's gotten ahead again, damn it.
Very common in games/anime dialogue between rivals.
Form
| Verb | て-form | + やがる |
|---|---|---|
| 遅刻する | 遅刻して | 遅刻してやがる |
| 笑う | 笑って | 笑ってやがる |
| 寝る | 寝て | 寝てやがる |
やがる conjugates like a regular う-verb: 寝てやがった (past), 寝てやがるな (don't you dare). The imperative やがれ ("go ahead and drop dead," roughly) is one of the harshest things you can say in Japanese — reserve it for fiction, not real conversation.
Fiction and friendly trash-talk only
You'll meet 〜てやがる constantly in anime, manga, and games — voicing yakuza, delinquents, and rivals — because it instantly signals a rough, aggressive character. Among very close friends it can also appear jokingly, without real hostility, as exaggerated trash-talk (「またお前が勝ってやがる」 — "you won again, you bastard," said with a grin). Outside fiction or that kind of banter, it reads as genuinely rude and should never be aimed at strangers, elders, or anyone in a formal setting.
The short version
- て-form + やがる = marks contempt, anger, or disdain toward someone's action.
- Attaches to: て-form of any verb; conjugates as a regular う-verb.
- Register: rough, masculine, spoken — fiction or joking banter between close friends only.
- Don't confuse with: plain 〜ている, which is neutral and carries no judgment at all.
Practice it
Pick the sentence that expresses contempt or disdain toward the action.
＿＿＿に入れるのに最もよいものを選びなさい。
あいつ、また遅刻して＿＿＿な。
Where 〜てやがる fits
Shaky on this? Get these solid first
- 〜てください · N5 — 〜てください is the standard way to politely ask someone to do something ('please do…'). Learn the formation, the negative 〜ないでください, softer variations, and see clear examples.
More N2 grammar to explore
Keep going with related patterns at the same level:
- 〜てやまない — 〜てやまない attaches to the て-form of feeling verbs like 願う or 愛する to mean 'never cease to (feel this) / (feel this) from the bottom of my heart.' It marks an emotion that continues without a break.
- 〜と同時に — 〜と同時に attaches to a plain-form verb or noun to mean 'at the same time as / as soon as' — ベルが鳴ると同時に生徒が出た. It links two events happening simultaneously, or one triggering the other instantly.
- 〜ところだった — 〜ところだった means something almost happened but was narrowly avoided — 'I was just about to / I almost did.' It attaches to the dictionary form of a verb and often follows a close call like あぶない or もう少しで.
- つい — つい is an adverb meaning 'unintentionally / before I knew it' — it describes an action that slipped out despite the speaker's intentions, or a habitual slip. Common with speaking, eating, and other hard-to-control impulses.
- 〜は別として — 〜は別として means 'setting X aside' or 'apart from X' — it brackets off one topic as a separate matter so the speaker can address something more pressing, without denying the bracketed topic's importance.
- 〜はもとより — 〜はもとより means 'not to mention X, Y too' — it names an obviously-true first case and then emphasizes that an even more surprising or extended second case also holds, similar to 'let alone' but adding rather than negating.