Words are the building blocks of language. In order to have any type of conversation in Japanese, you will need to know a certain amount of Japanese words. The more Japanese words you know, the more you will be able to communicate. However, it’s not just the number of Japanese words that’s important, but also which ones.
When most people think of learning the Japanese language, they think of the years of hard work they will need to put in. The majority of people consider this hard work and the amount of time it will take to reach fluency, and decide it’s impossible. Having studied Japanese and language learning for over 9 years, I have heard quite a few people say they could never do it. However, learning a new language, even one like Japanese, isn’t as difficult and doesn’t take as long as most people think. In fact, with diligent study and the right materials, I believe someone can have a level of fluency within a matter of months.
The Japanese language has hundreds of thousands of words, but it is only a small fraction of those words that makes up the majority of both the spoken and written language. Since the written words and spoken words will be slightly different, and because most of your communication in Japanese will be spoken, the quickest way to gain fluency is to learn the most commonly spoken Japanese words and phrases.
The key is too choose the right materials. I have used literally dozens of Japanese books and most of them have one common problem, they are full of Japanese words and situational phrases that you don’t need to know. Most also focus too much on learning to say things a proper way. This is great for someone who wants to learn proper Japanese, but will slow down someone who wants to gain conversational fluency. Also, don’t be afraid to use use materials such as comic books, tv shows, and movies. The latter two not only allow you to learn commonly used Japanese words, but practice your listening as well.
Below I have created a short list of some of the most common and most helpful Japanese words. These are words that should definitely be in a Japanese learners vocabulary and will especially be helpful for someone planning to visit Japan. Note that this list is by no means comprehensive or complete, but should help you get around when you visit Japan. In addition to the words listed here, I highly recommend that you study as many common Japanese phrases as possible. Learning common Japanese phrases will help you to better communicate and also to put words in context.
You can also find a much larger list containing 1000+ Japanese words in a downloadable pdf format at the below link.
Common Japanese Words
| English | Japanese | Japanese |
| Me, I | watashi | わたし |
| Me, I (for males | boku | ぼく |
| Yes | hai | はい |
| No | iie | いいえ |
| What | nani | なに |
| Name | namae | なまえ |
| Nice to meet you | Hajimemashite | はじめまして |
| want to go to~ | ~ni ikitai | 〜に いきたい |
| want to eat~ | ~wo tabetai | 〜を たべたい |
| want to drink~ | ~wo nomitai | 〜を のみたい |
| water | omizu | おみず |
| can’t eat~ | ~wo taberarenai | 〜を たべられない |
| excuse me/sorry | sumimasen | すみません |
| thank you | arigatou gozaimasu | ありがとうございます |
| want to buy~ | ~wo kaitai | 〜を かいたい |
| want to see~ | ~wo mitai | 〜を みたい |
| sorry | gomen nasai | ごめん なさい |
| good morning | ohayougozaimasu | おはようございます |
| good afternoon | konnichi wa | こんにちは |
| good evening | konnban wa | こんばんは |
| how are you? | ogenki desu ka | おげんき です か |
| I’m fine | genki desu | げんき です |
| taxi | takushii | タクシー |
| hotel | hoteru | ホテル |
| train | densha | でんしゃ |
| station | eki | えき |
| hospital | byouin | びょういん |
| where is~ | ~wa doko | 〜は どこ |
| bathroom | otearai | おてあらい |
| ticket | kippu | きっぷ |
| money | okane | おかね |
| bank | ginkou | ぎんこう |
| police | keisatsu | けいさつ |
| How much? | ikura | いくら |
| plane | hikouki | ひこうき |
| foreigner | gaijin | がいじん |
| Japan | nihon | にほん |
| Japanese | nihonjin | p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }
にほんじん |
| person | hito | ひと |
| hurts | itai | いたい |
25 Other Helpful Japanese Words
| noon | ohiru | おひる |
| morning | asa | あさ |
| evening | yoru | よる |
| meal | gohan | ごはん |
| play | asobu | あそぶ |
| listen | kiku | きく |
| expensive | takai | たかい |
| half | hanbun | はんぶん |
| cheap | yasui | やすい |
| room | heya | へや |
| art museum | bijutsukan | びじゅつかん |
| park | koen | こうえん |
| zoo | doubutsuen | どうぶつえん |
| express train | kaisoku | かいそく |
| subway | chikatetsu | ちかてつ |
| car | kuruma | くるま |
| close | chikai | ちかい |
| far | toi | とおい |
| tasty | oishii | おいしい |
| spacious | hiroi | ひろい |
| narrow | semai | せまい |
| warm | atatakai | あたたかい |
| cold | samui | さむい |
| bright | akarui | あかるい |
| dark | kurai | くらい |
Numbers and Time
| One | ichi | いち |
| Two | ni | に |
| Three | san | さん |
| Four | shi | し |
| Five | go | ご |
| Six | roku | ろく |
| Seven | shichi | しち |
| Eight | hachi | はち |
| Nine | ku | く |
| Ten | juu | じゅう |
| One hundred | hyaku | 百 |
| One thousand | sen | せん |
| Ten thousand | man | まん |
| Time | jikan | じかん |
| ~O’clock | ji | じ |
| Fall | aki | あき |
| Winter | fuyu | ふゆ |
| Spring | haru | はる |
| Summer | natsu | なつ |
| Monday | getsuyoubi | げつようび |
| Tuesday | kayoubi | かようび |
| Wednesday | suiyoubi | すいようび |
| Thursday | mokuyoubi | もくようび |
| Friday | kinyoubi | きんようび |
| Saturday | doyoubi | どようび |
| Sunday | nichiyoubi | にちようび |
| weekend | shuumatsu | しゅうまつ |
| vacation, rest | yasumi | やすみ |
haru:spring
natsu:summer
aki:autumn
fuyu:winter
from:Daniel-kun
NARUTO RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Daniel-kun! I have added a “time” section and added those in, as well as days of the week, numbers, and times.
Thanks for this list, it’ll be helpful as next year I’m going to Japan as a foreign exchange student.
Rob, I hope it helps you out. I was a study abroad abroad student myself and also worked as an admissions counselor in Japan. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Actually I do have a question, it’s probably incredibly obvious, but when do you use o or wa? I’m having trouble memorizing it. Thanks.
Hi, Rob. Don’t worry, its not obvious at all and it takes a lot of practice to get them right. In general, wa follows the subject and o will follow the object. For example: “Watashi wa kore o tabemasu.” I will eat this.
Oh wow, now it makes sense.
Thanks for the help Nick!
Rob, I am glad I could help. The particles are pretty difficult to learn because we don’t have them in the English language. After enough practice though they will come more natural.
what is late in japanese?
gaktkr, it would depend on the context, but to “osoi” is probably the most common. The word itself actually means slow, but is commonly used to mean late.
arigato gozaimasu nick ^^ whats please in Japanese?
Doitashimashite! Probably the simplest and most common word for please would be onegai shimasu. However, to ask someone to “please do something” would be the te form + kudasai. Ex: ~ o shite kudasai- please do ~
what does Doitashimashite mean? i dont know much Japanese so im still trying to teach myself arigato gozaimasu Nick for your help you are very very kind ^^
Gaktkr, Doitashimashite means “You are welcome”
oh thank you i can now read Japanese ^^ i have a table with Japanese characters with english characters underneath i just have to learn them and now i have to learn the words ^^ arigato gozaimasu Nick for your help people can be so kind ^^
@gaktr You are very welcome. Good luck learning the characters. It can be a little hard to remember them, but it will help you in your studies to get away from using romaji.
isn’t it にほんじん, not のほんじん?
Nick,I’m a great fan of anime and always had a great desire to learn a new language.That list was quite useful.Could you give me some tips on how can I rapidly learn conversational Japanese. Arigatou gozaimasu.
what’s the meaning of shitseru
Hi Merlyn,
Yes it is にほんじん. Thanks for pointing that out, so I could fix it.
Konnichiwa Nick is this your site? also this is an amazing site i think its better than translators because when i put a word(s) in then translate them to Japanese then copy then paste the translation back in the translate to english its not what i want to when i want to type in Japanese or something i go to this site this site rules ^^
Hi BJ, Thanks for your comment. Sorry to get back to you so late. I have been really sick for the last few days and haven’t been able to get to the computer much.
I’m glad to hear that you are interested in learning Japanese. As a first step, I recommend that you find a good program to help you learn. I used Genki when I was in college and it is a pretty decent book. Once you get a basic vocabulary under your belt, then start watching your anime in Japanese with English subtitles. I have also written an e-book, “5 Tips To Learn Japanese Faster” which contains some helpful tips on learning Japanese. You can download that book by signing up for the Japanese Words newsletter. To actually get conversational practice you might also find this article on Japanese conversation helpful. I hope that gives some help and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Makingpofantic,
Did you find this word on the list? With the Japanese alphabet there is no such character as “tse”. However, shitteru (しってる) would mean “to know”.
Hi Gaktr, Thanks for your kind comment. Yes, this is my site, and I am glad you are finding it helpful. I won’t always have the time to “translate”, but I do try my best.
Nick,Is the newsletter free?
Nick,arigatou gozaimasu.Ogenki desu ka?After reading your reply to Gaktr it seems as you are a quite humble and helpful personality.That 1000+ words for Japaneese was quite fine but I found it difficult as it didn’t have the english pronounciation with itself.Sumimasen if it seems too rude.This site is really amazing and if I ever learn Japaneese, then 50% appreciation to you.And one more thing is that no one in my house knows that I’m intrested in learning Japaneese so please give me some advices that I can learn Japaneese without any type of special kind of book.Once again arigatou gozaimasu.
BJ, yes the newsletter is completely free. You als get access to the members page that has some other helpful Japanese materials and information.
Sorry about the word list not containing romaji (English characters). I had created it once I had already learned to read the Japanese alphabet. I encourage you to do the same thing as it will help you learn Japanese quicker and also help with pronunciation.
http://www.japanesewords.net/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form
If you don’t want to use a book, then you might check out a web-based program called I-know. It has Japanese lessons combined with a unique learning system that is pretty cool. Let me know if that helps.
Nick,that really helped me.Thank You.One more thing . I found that arigatou = thank you and
arigatou gozaimasu = thank you very much.Am I right?
BJ, that is the way they are usually translated, but it depends on the situation as much as the actual words. Arigatou is more informal and should mainly be used when you know the person you are speaking to pretty well. Arigatou gozaimasu is considered more polite and therefore should be used in most interactions. If you are unsure, use arigatou gozaimasu.
Umm, is there two pronunciations for big bro?
You can say “oniisan” for someone else’s brother or “ani” if you are talking about your own brother. Oniisan is fine to use in both cases.
Japanese Word of the Day (with audio) available here for those interested:
http://www.hitsalive.com/wordoftheday/
thanks for the post its helpful i think i got some of the basics but i still need to learn common words can u add new common words,
thanks again
Nihonjinwannabe, I am glad you found the list helpful. You can find another list containing over 1,000 Japanese words with kanji at the link below. You can also get the list in xcel format by signing u for the newsletter.
1000 Japanese words list
Can you please Translate….
In Loving Memory
Lacy Bauer
September 01, 2000
It would mean so much to me.
Thank you,
Brandi
Konnichiwa Nick o genki desu ka? please could you tell me what good night is in Japanese and could you give me it in the symbols as well so its like you give me one for example: Konnichiwa こんにちは because i want to say good night to someone but i cant find good night in Japanese and i really want to say good night in Japanese to her ^^
Arigato gozaimasu Nick take care.
Konnichiha gaktkr! Genkidesu! Good night is Oyasumi Nasai!
what does the suffixes “kun” “san” “chan” “chi” “sama” mean?
Arigato gozaimasu Nick you are so so sooo helpful ^^
Gaktkr, No problem. Glad I can help.
Hi Ralf, thanks for reading. You can find basic descriptions of the different Japanese suffixes at the below link. As far as “chi” goes it is really more of a slang used by friends to make certain names easier or smoother to say rather than a suffix. In any case, if you are sure what suffix to use, then it is best to stick with san. It’s kind of like saying Mr. or Ms.
Japanese Suffixes
Hi Nick I was wondering what mata ne means?
Thanks take care.
Gaktktr-”mata ne” means “see you later”. It is a casual way to say “goodbye”
Brandi- I have sent you an e-mail.
Oh thanks Nick a Japanese friend always says mata ne to me when she has to go she did tell me what it ment before but i fogot thanks for reminding me ^^
I’ve always wanted to learn japanese but i could never really find the time to sit down and practice cuz i couldnt find anything that i could understand. But now that i saw this list it has helped me out a lot and i understand better. ^-^ I wanna move to japan and stay for a while so i’m ganna use this list everyday to learn. thx u so much ^-^
Alyssa, I am glad to hear that this is helping you so much. Over the next few days I will also be making a number of posts about optimising your browser for learning Japanese so stay tuned.
Naruto? Really Daniel-Kun? The manga’s okay, but the anime SUCKS. You want real anime, try Akira and Wolf’s Rain.
But, all in all, this list has been helpful for my book (one of my characters speaks Japanese, so yeah)! Thanks!
Corn,
Glad the list has been helpful. What kind of book are you writing? Is it a novel or a manga? At any rate, good luck!
im pretty sure “たかい” means tall… not expensive.
http://smart.fm/lists/19053-japanese-core-2000-step-1
4th page 2nd item~