Learn all you need to know about greetings in Japanese
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Intro |
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| Michael: How do you greet someone at different times of the day? |
| Risa: And are there any alternatives? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee runs into a friend, Hana Hashimoto. He greets her but fails to notice how late it's gotten. Ben says, |
| "Good morning!" |
| Ben Lee: おはようございます！ (Ohayō gozaimasu!) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: おはようございます！ (Ohayō gozaimasu!) |
| Hana Hashimoto: もう一時ですよ。こんにちは！ (Mō ichi-ji desu yo. Kon'nichiwa!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: おはようございます！ (Ohayō gozaimasu!) |
| Michael: "Good morning!" |
| Hana Hashimoto: もう一時ですよ。こんにちは！(Mō ichi-ji desu yo. Kon'nichiwa!) |
| Michael: "It's already 1. Good afternoon!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: While the topic of greetings may appear simple, you may change your mind after taking a closer look. In the dialogue, Ben Lee says, |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Michael: which roughly translates to "good morning," and is used mainly in the morning. This phrase is actually built from two words, |
| Risa: おはよう (ohayō), which comes from はやく (hayaku), meaning "early," and ございます (gozaimasu), which is a formal way of saying です (desu), or "to be." |
| Michael: When said together, the words literally mean "early is" and are used to refer to an early event. Historically, the phrase seems to have its roots in Kabuki theater, where actors had to arrive early, as their makeup and other preparations took a lot of time. The staff, that arrived later, would greet the actors by saying |
| Risa: お早いお着きでございます (o-hayai o-tsuki de gozaimasu), |
| Michael: a polite version of |
| Risa: 早く着きましたね (hayaku tsukimashita ne), |
| Michael: meaning "you've arrived early." Over time, the polite phrase shortened and evolved into its modern form |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Michael: which is now used to greet people in the morning. Later in the day, after around noon, or even 11 o’clock, the usual greeting changes to |
| Risa: こんにちは (kon'nichiwa), |
| Michael: meaning "hello" or "good day." This is the most general greeting, and it comes from the longer phrase |
| Risa: 今日は、ご機嫌いかがですか (kon'nichi wa, go-kigen ikaga desu ka) |
| Michael: literally meaning, "When talking about today, [your] mood how is?" Dropping all but the first part, we're left with the modern greeting |
| Risa: こんにちは (kon'nichiwa). |
| Micheal: This also explains why the wa sound in kon'nichiwa is written the same way as the particle wa. It's because it used to be the particle wa when kon'nichiwa was still part of a full sentence. Moving on, once it gets dark, the common greeting then changes to |
| Risa: こんばんは (konbanwa), |
| Micheal: or "Good evening." Etymologically, this greeting is very similar to kon'nichiwa, so it also uses particle wa written using the hiragana ha rather than the hiragana wa. Lastly, before going to bed, one can say |
| Risa: おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai), |
| Michael: which is a parting expression, literally a polite command meaning "have a rest," but usually translated in English as "goodnight." |
| While these expressions depend to some extent on the time of day, sometimes you will hear |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Michael: used throughout the day, especially in a work setting. There are different explanations for this phenomenon. Some say that it's because |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Micheal: with the formal |
| Risa: ございます (gozaimasu) |
| Micheal: sounds more respectful, so people use it to greet their coworkers and supervisors, even if they start work in the evening. Others say that people simply always greet others at the beginning of their work day with |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu), |
| Micheal: regardless of when they actually start work. It's not clear which explanation is the most accurate, but just remember that, at a part-time job, for example, you may hear |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Micheal: at any time of the day. To summarize, we've just reviewed three standard greetings |
| Risa: おはようございます、こんにちは、こんばんは (ohayō gozaimasu, kon'nichiwa, konbanwa), |
| Micheal: "good morning," "hello," "good evening," and one parting expression |
| Risa: おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai), |
| Michael: "goodnight." For all of them, the time of the day is rather important, although you may hear |
| Risa: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Michael: being used at the beginning of your work shift, regardless of the time of day. Let's now look at two more parting greetings. The first one is |
| Risa: お先に失礼します (osaki ni shitsurei shimasu), |
| Michael: literally "I'm making a faux pax [by leaving] before [you]." This expression is sometimes shortened to |
| Risa: お先に (osaki ni) |
| Michael: and can be used when you leave your work, a meeting, or more generally any place before other people. This is much more common than |
| Risa: さようなら (sayōnara), |
| Michael: which you may know as "goodbye," but which is only used in a limited number of situations, such as when a person bids farewell knowing they won't return for a long time, or in certain formal situations, such as when students say goodbye to their teachers after class. Our last parting expression is |
| Risa: お疲れ様です (otsukare-sama desu), |
| Michael: which is difficult to translate accurately, but it is said to coworkers at the end of the work day to show appreciation for their efforts and acknowledge that they may be tired, which explains the use of the word |
| Risa: お疲れ (otsukare), |
| Michael: coming from the verb |
| Risa: 疲れる (tsukareru), |
| Michael: meaning "to get tired." Please note, however, that you should not say this phrase to your supervisors. And there we have it; while these are by no means all the greetings used in Japanese, this concludes our coverage of the most common and basic greetings. While studying the language, you will gradually notice that some greetings, such as |
| Risa: こんばんは (konbanwa) |
| Michael: depend on the time of the day, while others, such as |
| Risa: お疲れ様です (otsukare-sama desu) or even おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu), |
| Michael: may depend on the situation and the relationship of the speakers. |
Outro |
| Michael: That's all for today. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (Mata ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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