# 用意はしてねぇ言い訳



## airelibre

Could someone explain to me the use of ぇ here? And also explain how the sentence as a whole works. Thanks!


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## Schokolade

してねぇ is a colloquial, masculine, and a bit curt way of saying して(い)ない; the negative ない gets collapsed to ねぇ.

Examples of this sound change (/ai/ → /ee/) include:
食べたい --> 食べてぇ
うるさい --> うるせぇ
きたない --> きたねぇ
etc.

用意はしてねぇ, or 用意はして(い)ない means "(something) is not ready," "(something) has not been prepared," or "(someone) has not prepared (something)."

言い訳 is "an excuse."

So 用意はしてねぇ言い訳 can be "An excuse for (my) not being ready/prepared," "An excuse for my not having prepared (something,)" or maybe "An excuse that has not been prepared" or "I haven't prepared an excuse," depending on the context.


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## karlalou

This ねぇ is vulgar colloquial version of ない.

When we are writing spoken language, we sometimes use these small letters for some interjections or particles used at the end of a sentence such as:
あぁ (Oh/Alas), まぁ (oh/well), なぁ[ねぇ] (addressing or particle ending a sentence), えぇ (yes), わぁ (wow)
These have been widely accepted since long long time ago. (Though there's some usages nowadays which are considered misuse and annoying many people such as してないょ because there's no reason to use the small letter except being playful.)

Oh, I forgot one thing. I am not sure what 用意はしてねぇ言い訳 is saying. It doesn't seem to me a complete sentence. I need more context.


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## Flaminius

Just to add that using small kana is optional. ねえ, せえ, まあ are just as fine.


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## airelibre

I see, but in this case the use of a small letter is to show it's an abbreviation, right? A bit like how in English an apostrophe is used to show don't<--do not.

The sentence is a line from a mostly Korean rap song named It G Ma ("Never forget"). It's the second verse, by Loota:
Keith Ape (Ft. JayAllDay, KOHH, Loota & Okasian) – 잊지마 (It G Ma)
Although the surrounding lines probably don't provide any more context. In the link it says "no excuses are prepared".


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## karlalou

This ねぇ is just said ない vulgarly. Maybe it's called a kind of abbreviation, but there's nothing more than ない.

I don't see any context for the line in the lyrics, but if it's meant to say "no excuses are prepared", then correct way of saying it is 言い訳は用意してねぇ. No Japanese would say, even vulgarly, 用意はしてねぇ言い訳.
To be understood, it should be like 用意はしてねぇ言い訳なんか. Maybe it's because of the need to fit in the ryhthm, but I think it's just not well-written..


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## airelibre

Maybe if you listen quickly to the song (YouTube or Soundcloud for example), you can judge whether or not the whole verse is "not well-written", or if when you hear the whole thing it kind of makes a bit more sense. I mean, I understand that it's pretty "vulgar", and kind of macho rapping, but I'm confused that you say that what he said doesn't even sound like something a native Japanese speaker would say.

Also, just to double check, ねぇ is nē, with a double length e?


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## Flaminius

The sentence in question, to my mind, is well within the natural varieties of the language.  言い訳は、用意してねえ has an apparent edge over it, but invertion is a common way of making an emphasis and using it in poetry makes it all the more acceptable.

ねえ (colloquial < ない) as well as regular ねい (occurring as the pronunciation of 寧, 侫) are _nē_.  It is phonemically longer than _ne_.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

This song is a rap, isn't it?
If so, some sentences of the lyrics adopt the reversed word orders　（倒置法） in order to make the rhyme better.
In order to sing more smoothly and naturally, the reversed word order is adopted in some phrases.

残せるものは大いに越したことない　この一生に
＝この一生に残せるものは大いに越したこと（は）ない。

用意はしてねぇ言い訳
＝言い訳（の）用意はしてねぇ
＝言い訳（の）用意はしていない。
I won't say any excuses.  (Any excuses I won't say.)
I'm not planning to say excuses. (Excuses I'm not planning to say.)
In Japanese, reversed word orders are more acceptable than Yoda's English.

そりゃ死んだ目じゃおいかけてこないティンカーベル
＝そりゃ、死んだ目じゃ　ティンカーベル（は）おいかけてこない。

Edit) Maybe or probably, this reply is mentioning more or less the same thing as the previous reply.


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## airelibre

ありがとう！


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