Does 「準備できた」have a meaning of "something is ready"?

Question

I have heard「準備できた」from a game. I think the meaning there is "something is ready".
If so, which explanation is better?
1.「準備できた」is made from the 可能形 of 「準備する」(準備できる) and 助動詞「た」
2.「準備できた」is just「準備ができた」where「が」is omitted in spoken language?

I think we can make a test of 1. For example, I want to say "the meal is ready". If 1 is right, then we can say

食事が準備できた

which is made from 「食事を準備する」. So the question is if 「食事が準備できた」has the meaning "the meal is ready" other than "the meal could be prepared" due to the 可能形?

Answer 1

1. I think the proper way to say it would be 「食事の準備ができた。」. In fact, 「食事が準備できた」 doesn't make much sense. It sounds like the food did some sort of preparation, which is gibberish.

To answer your question though, 「食事の準備ができた」 will almost always be taken as "the food is ready". Depending on context, you can make it mean the potential though.

前は、食事の準備は一人でもできたけど、最近は忙しくて妻に頼っています。
Before, I was able to cook a meal by myself, but recently I've been relying on wife.

2. Yes. When omitting particles, speech often sounds more casual. Here's another post about it.