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A girl is moaning about how she is treated for not doing her homework then
pauses and says:

> やってられないよ

I assume this is a contraction of やっていられないよ which would literally be "I can't
be doing it". I've never seen the verb-ている form converted to potential before.
Is it a common thing and how does it differ from, for example, やれない in this
case?

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely. Either way, I don't understand
what meaning this sentence is supposed to convey.
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2016-01-14T23:23:19.900
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2016-01-15T15:49:56.573
2016-01-15T04:48:57.133
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question
grammar set-phrases phrases
verb-ている in potential form やってられないよ
As you stated,

> 「やってられないよ」＝「やって **い** られないよ」

More informally, you will often hear:

> 「やって **らん** ないよ」 or even 「やって **らんねえ** よ」 around Kanto (therefore, in
> fiction as well).

It would probably be better to treat a common phrase like 「やって（い）られない」 as a
set phrase rather than breaking it down to understand it.

**_It simply means "I can't stand it anymore!" You are saying what is
happening is ridiculous._**

> "I've never seen the verb-ている form converted to potential before."

Really? It is used quite often. We say things like:

「つまんねえ[映画]{えいが}！[観]{み}てられないよ～！」"What a boring movie! I can't watch it
anymore!"

「[変]{へん}な[曲]{きょく}！[聴]{き}いてられねえ！」"Weird tune! Can't be listening to it!"

「こんなマズいピザ[食]{た}べてらんねえぜ！」"I can't be eating an awful pizza like this!"

Whether you use the present progressive in your translation or not would be up
to you.
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2016-01-14T23:54:32.783
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answer