What does the suffix なっちゃった mean?
I was reading something and it said 「遅くなっちゃった」and I have seen that type of grammar before but I can never figure out what it means. I know 遅く is slowly, but I am not familiar with what the ending means.
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なっちゃう (or in general ちゃう) is the slagish form of なってしまう (or in general てしまう)
[Doubling and " is transited so it would be およいじゃう for およぐ]
おそい -> slow, but also late (in this case latter)
なる -> to be, to become (in this case you translate it to "to be" but the Japanese idea behind it is "to become)
遅くなる -> to become late
I used "become" instead of "be" to show the difference in tense usage between the two languages:
遅くなる -> I will be late (or to be late in general)
遅くなった -> I am late (as it is lit. I have become late)
Shimau follows the te form and it shows that 1) the action has completely ended [in this case it could be understood as "It is over, I am late now" but more likely in this case it uses its second meaning 2) shows regret towards the action having taken place.
遅くなちゃった -> (I am sorry), I am late. [It is not openly apologetic, but it has subtle nuance of apologising]
These two phrases are probably pretty common:
ごめん、遅くなちゃった
遅くなちゃってごめん (probably the fomer is more used but they are basically the same)