皆さん、おはこんばんちは！(mina san, o ha kon ban chi wa!)

This is one of my favorite words and it’s from Dr. Slump (a manga series), and it’s actually おはよう (ohayou, “good morning”), こんばんは(konbanwa, “good evening”), and こんにちは (kon ni chi wa, “good afternoon/hello”) all mixed together to make one word.

Japanese people love shortening words. I’m pretty sure there are a few that you already know like アニメ(anime), which is a truncated version of アニメーション (a nimēshon, “animation”) and ポケモン (pokemon), which is a contracted version of ポケット・モンスター (poketto monsutā) but there’s more of them than you can even imagine! You probably didn’t notice that many of them are contracted word because they’re used so much! Take 高校 (kōkō), for example. I always thought that was the Japanese word for “high school,” because we say 高校生 (kōkōsei) for high school students, but the original word for “high school” is actually 高等学校 (kōtō gakkō). Did you know about this? Or is it just me? (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)

Check out the 5 Japanese Phrases To Make You Sound Like a Pro!

Anyway, let me share more examples with you so that next time your Japanese friends use these words, you can be cool because you understand what they’re saying! 🙂 Some of them are pretty easy to figure out, like 携帯 (keitai) instead of 携帯電話 (keitaidenwa), which is the word for “cell phone.” I think コンビニ (konbini) is fairly easy as well, as it’s a truncated version for コンビニエンス・ストア (konbiniensu sutoa, “convenience store”). Some words, however, may be a bit more challenging like 東大 (tōdai), from the word 東京大学 (tōkyōdaigaku) and パソコン (pasokon) from the word パーソナルコンピュータ (pāsonaru konpyūta).

So how do you actually do it? Well, there are some common patterns to it.

For words that are in kanji like 東京大学 (tōkyōdaigaku), the first kanji of each word is usually taken and combined together, to form a contracted version, so it becomes 東大 (tōdai). It’s a little bit different when it comes to loan words, depending on whether it is made up of one or two words. アニメーション (animēshon), for example, is one word, so only the first part of the word is taken as a contracted form, thus アニメ (anime). ファミリーレストラン (famirīresutoran), on the other hand, is made up of two words, and so the first two kanas are usually taken and combined to form a single word: ファミレス (famiresu).

Here are some commonly used contracted words:

Contracted words are used so much in Japan that people might tend to forget—or, even worse, not be aware of—the original word! It may be a bit hard for non-native Japanese speakers to understand some of them as well, but once you know what it stands for, it won’t be a problem anymore! I find this aspect of Japanese culture really interesting! I hope you feel the same way too!

Click here to learn more Japanese words!

That’s all for today!

では、また！ 🙂