Basic Japanese

Basic Japanese: Here are some basic Japanese words and basic Japanese phrases that you could find very helpful on your travels to Japan. These are very easy to learn basic Japanese words.

For a more detailed list of Japanese words see our Japanese Phrase Book.

Hello. 

こんにちは。　Konnichiwa. (kon-nee-chee-WAH)

How are you? 

お元気ですか。　O-genki desu ka? (oh-GEN-kee dess-KAH?)

Fine, thank you. 

元気です。　Genki desu. (GEN-kee dess)

What is your name? 

お名前は何ですか。 O-namae wa nan desu ka?　(oh-NAH-mah-eh wah NAHN dess-KAH?)

My name is ____ . 

私の名前は ____ です。 Watashi no namae wa ____ desu. (wah-TAH-shee no nah-mah-eh wa ____ dess)

Nice to meet you. 

始めまして。　Hajimemashite. (hah-jee-meh-MOSH-teh)

Please. (request) 

お願いします。　Onegai shimasu. (oh-neh-gigh shee-moss)

Please. (offer) 

どうぞ。 Dōzo. (DOH-zo)

Thank you. 

どうもありがとう。 Dōmo arigatō. (doh-moh ah-ree-GAH-toh)

You're welcome. 

どういたしまして。 Dō itashi mashite. (doh EE-tah-shee mosh-teh)

Yes. 

はい。 Hai. (HIGH)

No. 

いいえ。 Iie. (EE-eh)

Excuse me. 

すみません。 Sumimasen. (soo-mee-mah-sen)

I'm sorry. 

御免なさい。 Gomen-nasai. (goh-men-nah-sigh)

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Japanese

JAPANESE - Japanese language, Japanese words, Japanese phrases, Japanese people, learn Japanese and hundreds of other Japanese topics.

Japanese (日本語, Nihongo ) is a language spoken by over 127 million people, mainly in Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. It is considered an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. Its recorded history goes back to the 8th century, when the three major works of Old Japanese were compiled. READMORE...

JAPANESE LANGUAGE

Japanese Language: Japanese (日本語 nihongo) is spoken in Japan, and essentially nowhere else. The Japanese language is distinct from Chinese and Korean, although the written form uses Chinese (kanji) characters, and is not known to be related to any other language.

Grammar
Japanese generally employs a subject-object-verb order, using particles to mark the grammatical functions of the words: 私がハンバーガーを食べる watashi-ga hamburger-o taberu, "I-subject hamburger-object eat". It is common to omit subjects and even objects if these are clear from previous context.

Verbs and adjectives conjugate by tense and politeness level, but not by person or number. There is no verb "to be" as such, but the polite copula desu can be used in most cases: John desu ("I am John"), Ringo desu ("This is an apple"), Akai desu ("It is red"), etc. Note that the exact meaning will depend on the implied subject!

The good news is that Japanese has none of the following: gender, declensions or plurals. Nouns never conjugate and almost all verbs are regular.

Reading and writing
Reading and writing Japanese are advanced skills which take years of work to gain much real proficiency. Japanese themselves use three different writing systems of various complexity, two of which (hiragana' and katakana) are syllabic and relatively easy to learn with 50 characters each, but the clincher is the set of over 2000 Chinese characters known as kanji. The set of hiragana characters is illustrated in the Japanese Pronunciation Guide.
See also Japanese Writing System. READMORE...