やがる (yagaru) Meaning Japanese Grammar - How Dare You

The expression やがる (yagaru) means to dare, to have the courage to, to have the nerve to.

やがる is added to the stem of a verb to indicate contempt, disdain, hatred towards the interlocutor in performing a certain action.

やがる is often used in manga and anime to show contempt and disdain between various characters, for example during a fight

In this post we learn more about the meaning of やがる, how it is formed, and when やがる is used through real example sentences.

How やがる is formed

やがる is added as a suffix to the stem of the verb, base B2, or base in "masu" of the verb to which it is applied:

Let's see some examples of conjugations for やがる:

How and when to use やがる

やがる is a slang (very colloquial) verbal suffix for showing contempt for another person's actions.

やがる is generally never used in everyday language in Japan. However, it is often found in TV series, manga, and anime

やがる is in fact a very rude and intimidating way to indicate defiance and contempt for someone else's actions. As such, やがる is almost never used in normal conversations.

やがる can be translated as how dare. Let's see an example to understand the meaning:

From the example we can understand how the use of やがる (やがった in the past tense) indicates that the action of hanging up the phone was rude and unexpected. For this reason, やがる indicates a sense of contempt and annoyance that our interlocutor dared to do such a thing.

やがる can be considered the opposite of くれる: while くれる indicates an action seen in a positive way, やがる instead indicates a negative action

Another way to say "how dare you" in Japanese is よくも. Also よくも can often be found in manga and anime

言いやがって: Don't try and tell me that!

An expression that uses the form やがる is 言(い)いやがって. This expression is made up of:

• Verb 言(い)う, meaning to say
• やがる conjugated in its て form 言(い)いやがって is a very direct way to tell someone to stop joking or saying unnecessary things: literally how dare you say that!. Let's see an example:

The sentence begins with an expression of exasperation: ったく, which means geez, here we go again. This expression already makes us understand the unfriendly and very direct tone of the speech. In fact, we see below the use of 言(い)いやがって:

言(い)いやがって in this case we can translate it with how dare you tell me, which is a very direct expression, as we can also hear from the tone of voice.

Positive' use of やがる

Here is a comment on a YouTube video of a Japanese artist who performed a piece on the piano in an excellent manner, and the comment was this:

やがる is used in a strong way, but expresses a positive feeling, of admiration and emotion in this case.

Examples of やがる