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Japanese has many ways for people to greet each other. Often several alternatives will work for a situation, but certain phrases have more specific uses.
Saying hello
When seeing a person for the first time in a day, the most common greeting depends on the time of day:
おはようございます
Good morning (the less formal version is just おはよう)
こんにちは
Good day (note: the は is pronounced 'wa', as with the particle)
こんばんは
Good evening
Although each of these greetings could be translated as the English 'hello' (which could be used any number of times a day with the same person), in Japanese you would typically not use the same greeting twice. On seeing somebody again, you could say 'またこんにちは', or more commonly 'どうも'.
Other common greetings on bumping into people include:
ひさ
久
しぶり(です)
long time no see (on seeing a person for the first time in a while)
お
げんき
元気
ですか
how are you?
Meeting people
On meeting a person for the very first time, the standard greeting is はじめまして (pleased to meet you). This is typically followed by some form of どうぞよろしくお
ねが
願
いします, which literally means something like 'please be kind to me', but is used as a set phrase. よろしくお
ねが
願
いします comes from よろしく, the adverbial form of よろしい (good), plus ねがう (to entreat).
どうぞよろしくお
ねが
願
いします is a flexible phrase with many variations:
It can be made less formal by omitting the どうぞ (to make よろしくお
ねが
願
いします), or the お
ねが
願
いします (to make どうぞよろしく), or even very informally by omitting both (to make just よろしく).
It can be made more formal by using the polite form of する, いたす, to make どうぞよろしくお
ねが
願
い
いた
致
します.
For the absolute politest version of all (addressing somebody extremely senior, or in front of a large group), the humble form can be used: どうぞ、よろしくお
ねが
願
い
もう
申
し
あ
上
げます.
Saying goodbye
さようなら
goodbye (with a hint of finality)
お
さき
先
に
しつれい
失礼
します
said when leaving first (literally 'I'm being rude by leaving ahead of you')
お
さき
先
にどうぞ
please go ahead
お
つか
疲
れ
さま
様
でした
said to a person leaving or finishing some task (literally 'you must be tired')
じゃ(また)
see you
また
あした
明日
see you tomorrow
お
やす
休
みなさい
good night
Going out and coming back
Japanese also has a number of set expressions used when leaving (eg an office or a house) or returning.
いってきます
I'll be back (literally 'I go, and come')
いってらっしゃい
come back soon (the standard response to いってきます)
き
気
をつけてください
please take care (might be said if the person is going somewhere that requires it)
ただいま
I'm back
おかえりなさい
welcome back
すみません
excuse me (used as way to excuse oneself from a situation, such as a meeting). Informally, this is commonly pronounced すいません
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The Kanshudo kanji usefulness rating shows you how useful a kanji is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness of , which means it is among the most useful kanji in Japanese.
is one of the 138 kana characters, denoted with a usefulness rating of K. The kana are the most useful characters in Japanese, and we recommend you thoroughly learn all kana before progressing to kanji.
All kanji in our system are rated from 1-8, where 1 is the most useful.
The 2136 Jōyō kanji have usefulness levels from 1 to 5, and are denoted with badges like this:
The 138 kana are rated with usefulness K, and have a badge like this:
The Kanshudo usefulness level shows you how useful a Japanese word is for you to learn.
has a Kanshudo usefulness level of , which means it is among the
most useful words in Japanese.
All words in our system
are rated from 1-12, where 1 is the most useful.
Words with a usefulness level of 9 or better are amongst the most useful 50,000 words in Japanese, and
have a colored badge in search results, eg:
Many useful words have multiple forms, and less common
forms have a badge that looks like this:
The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test, 日本語能力試験) is the standard test of Japanese language ability for non-Japanese.
would first come up in level
N.
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indicates N5 (the first and easiest level)
indicates N1 (the highest and most difficult)
You can use Kanshudo to study for the JLPT. Kanshudo usefulness levels for kanji, words and grammar points map directly to JLPT levels, so your mastery level on Kanshudo is a direct indicator of your readiness for the JLPT exams.
Kanshudo usefulness counts up from 1, whereas the JLPT counts down from 5 - so the first JLPT level, N5, is equivalent to Kanshudo usefulness level .
The JLPT vocabulary lists were compiled by Wikipedia and Tanos from past papers. Sometimes the form listed by the sources is not the most useful form. In case of doubt, we advise you to learn the Kanshudo recommended form. Words that appear in the JLPT lists in a different form are indicated with a lighter colored 'shadow' badge, like this: .
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