Greetings in Japanese and How To Use Them

Greetings is one of the most important things that a language or culture can have to make society function properly. Every time we meet with the people we know on the street, we would always say hello to them and most probably also ask how are they doing at the time. When we meet with important people like clients or higher-ups, we would always use greetings to initiate a conversation with them. In Japanese, they also have greetings depending on the time and the situation just like any other languages. In this post we will discuss several greetings that are important for beginners to know!

Time Specific Greetings

The first kind of greetings we will discuss in this post is the time-specific greetings. These are the greetings that we use according to the time where the interaction is taking place. In this post we will discuss four of them.

Ohayou Gozaimasu/おはようございます

The first greetings we will discuss is ohayou Gozaimasu. Ohayou Gozaimasu can roughly be considered as the Japanese way to say "Good Morning". Just like "good morning", ohayou Gozaimasu is used when it is still morning, basically until it is 10 a.m. ohayou Gozaimasu is also used when we first enter our workplace at any hour. In informal speech, you can omit the "Gozaimasu" and just say ohayou.

Konnichiwa/こんにちは

The second greetings we will discuss is konnichiwa. Konnichiwa is roughly similar to the word "Hello" or "Good Afternoon". As a "Good afternoon" it can be used until around 5 p.m.

Konbanwa/こんばんは

The third greetings we will discuss is konbanwa. Konbanwa is basically the equivalent of "Good Evening". We can use konbanwa starting around 6 p.m. or sunset.

Oyasumi Nasai/おやすみなさい

The last greetings in this section that we will discuss is oyasuminasai. Oyasumi nasai is roughly how we can convey the expression "Good Night". We can use this word when we are about to sleep or someone is about to sleep. In informal speech, we can just say oyasumi.

Greetings To Acquaintances

Next, we will discuss the greetings that are used to greet somebody we know. In this post we will discuss two them.

Ogenki Desuka/お元気ですか

Ogenki Desuka is roughly equivalent to the expression "How do you do". To answer this expression we can say Ogenki desu. In informal speech we can just say ogenki or simply genki.

Hisashiburi/久しぶり

Hisashiburi can be translated as long time no see.

Farewell

Next we have farewell. These expressions are used when we are parting ways with someone and also when we are sending someone off. We will talk about five of them in this post.

Sayounara/さようなら

Sayounara is one of the ways we can use to bid farewell. However, sayounara sounds really serious. We should just use the others instead.

Mata Ashita/また明日

Mata ashita can be translated as see you tommorow.

Itterasshai/行ってらっしゃい

The expression itterasshai is used by us to someone who is about to leave a place. Itterasshai is usually used following/to answer ittekimasu.

Ki o tsukete/気をつけて

Ki o tsukete is a way to say "take care".

Bai bai/バイバイ

Bai bai is borrowed from the English bye bye. The usage is similar to english bye bye.

Others

Moshi Moshi/もしもし

Moshi-moshi is the equivalent of saying "Hello" when answering telephone calls. We can immediately use moshi-moshi after we accept the call.

Youkoso/ようこそ

Youkoso is roughly the equivalent of "welcome".

Irasshaimase/いらっしゃいませ

Irasshaimase can be used to greet a customer.

Tadaima/ただいま

Tadaima is an expression that is used when we just enter a house. We can use this expression when we are still around the front door.

Ittekimasu/行ってきます

Ittekimasu is an expression that is used when we are about to leave a place.

Otsukaresama deshita/お疲れ様でした

Otsukaresama deshita is an expression that we can use after someone is finishing doing their hard work as a way to recognize their effort.

That is all for our discussion of the greetings that beginners must know. There are probably some more greetings that we have not discussed yet but all of the expressions we have discussed in this post are what beginners must know when speaking Japanese. To help you remember some of the expressions above, I already prepared a video for you to help you memorize them. You can check the video below or here.

Source of the Pictures:

https://www.irasutoya.com/