Japanese Greetings

Japanese Greetings

On this page you will find all of the basic Japanese Greetings that you need to know when you learning Japanese.

Of course just reading the words won’t actually help you to speak and pronounce the language correctly, so we’ve also included audio so that you can also hear the words.

Scroll down and click on ‘Play’ and the back and forward arrows to select the word you would like to hear.

Japanese	Pronunciation	English
	Ohayoo gozaimasu	Good Morning.
	Konnichi wa.	Good afternoon. [Good day][Hello]
	Konban wa.	Good evening
	Oyasumi nasai.	Good night (said just before going to bed).
	Ogenki desu ka?	How are you? [Are you in good spirits?]
	Genki	Well [ good spirits]
	Genki desu	I am very well.
	Arigatoo gozaimasu.	Thank you
	Okagesama de.	Thank you. [Due to your kindness, I’m well]
	Onamae wa nan to osshaimasu ka?	What is your name? (formal)
	Onamae wa?	What is your name?
	Yamada Masao to mooshimasu.	My name is Yamada Masao.
	Yamada desu.	I am Yamada.
	Watakushi no namae wa Yamada desu.	My name is Yamada.
	Gomen nasai	Excuse me. I’m sorry.
	Ii desu.	That’s alright
	Sayounara	Goodbye.
	Dou itashimashite	You’re welcome.
	Sumimasen	I’m sorry. / Excuse me. / Thank you.
	Gomen-nasai	I’m terribly sorry.
	Ogenki-desu-ka?	How are you?
	Do-shimashita-ka?	What’s the matter?
	Odaijini	Take good care of yourself.

Now let’s study some of the greetings you’ll use right from the start. The words in brackets are literal translation.

The suffix  -san is used in Japanese as a term of respect meaning “Mr.”,”Mrs”,”Miss”,”Sir”,”or “Madam.” Japanese people use their last names before their first names. Thus, Yamada is the last name of the person speaking.

When giving their names in English, however, Japanese people usually adopt the Western order. For a Western name, even while speaking Japanese, the Western order is also usually used.

Tip: If you are using Firefox, Thunderbird or Seamonkey, you can use a popup Japanese-English dictionary tool called Rikaichan.