Chapter 6 of 17 · Explore the Japanese path
How sentences work · Chapter 6 of 17
Your first spoken words, and how polite to be
Japanese greets by the clock rather than by the person, so there is no all-purpose hello. Learn six words people use straight away, and where the polite gear sits.
≈ 2 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- There is no all-purpose “hello”: Japanese greets by the clock rather than by the person.
- こんにちは
konnichiwa ends in は and is said “-wa” — the spelling rule met in the wild. - さようなら
sayōnara means parting for a long time; it is heavier than English “goodbye”. - A polite gear exists — です
desu and ます masu — but books narrate plain, so this path is plain. - Every word here is pure hiragana; the rōmaji line carries you until the kana do.
Six words people use immediately
Japanese greets by the clock rather than by the person, so there is no all-purpose “hello”. The right-hand column tells you when each one fits.
| Japanese | When |
|---|---|
| おはよう | until roughly the middle of the day |
| こんにちは | through the middle of the day |
| こんばんは | after dark |
| さようなら | parting for a long time — books use it; to a friend you will see tomorrow, people say something lighter |
| ありがとう | any time |
| ごめん | any time, among familiars |
Two of these end in は and are said “-wa”, not “-ha”: the character doubles as a grammar mark, and the greeting preserves that spelling.
The polite gear, named once
Adding a word to a greeting puts distance between you and the person you are greeting. Compare each everyday form with its polite one.
おはよう
おはよう ございます
to a stranger, a teacher, or a colleague
ありがとう
ありがとう ございます
same words, more distance
Say them, then check
- こんにちは
Five characters. The last one is not said the way it is written.
Show answer +Hide answer −
こんにちはkonnichiwa “hello”. The final は is “wa”. - きつね
Show answer +Hide answer −
きつねkitsune “fox”
Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Japanese chapters ↗