Basic Phrases in Japanese // Learn 32 Essential Phrases (With Flashcards & FREE Quiz)

32 of The Most Important Basic Phrases in Japanese

Looking for THE most important basic phrases in Japanese?

Do you want to know the top phrases to help you get by in Japan?

Or maybe you’re looking for the most important basic phrases in Japanese to kick-start your Japanese learning journey.

Either way, look no further.

This short, basic and super simple guide will give you those all-important essential basic phrases in Japanese that you’ll need to get by.

Basic Phrases in Japanese || The Complete List

Basic Phrases in Japanese || Yes and No

Basic Phrases in Japanese || Greetings

Basic Phrases in Japanese || Politeness

Basic Phrases in Japanese || Other Essential Phrases

Basic Phrases in Japanese || Questions

BONUS || FREE Quiz

Basic Phrases in Japanese || FAQs

List of Most Basic Phrases in Japanese

Here is our complete list of the most basic phrases in Japanese:

Basic Phrases in Japanese: Yes and No

Two of the most important things to say in any language is of course yes and no.

Hai Play はい – Yes
Iie Play いいえ – No

Hai is yes, iie is no.

Whilst this may sound simple, saying ‘Yes’ in Japanese and ‘No’ in Japanese is actually impacted strongly by cultural nuances!

There are less polite ways to say both of these.

Examples include ‘un’ and ‘uun’ (yes/no respectively) but it’s best to stay polite until you get a better grasp of using honorific and casual speech.

You’ll discover formality is hugely important when speaking Japanese.

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Basic Phrases in Japanese: Greetings

Now that we’ve got yes and no out the way, let’s move onto basic phrases that include greetings.

You probably already know hello (konnichiwa: こんにちは) but why not take it one step further?

For basic greetings in Japanese, it’s important to note the time of day.

Konnichiwa literally means ‘this day’ and konbanwa literally means ‘this evening’.

To make a phrase sound more polite, you can add the politeness endings such as gozaimasu – but this can be a bit of a mouthful.

If you’re a beginner, you can get away with simply saying the first part of the word.

Basic Phrases in Japanese: Politeness

Politeness is important in Japanese!

Most people who have any knowledge of Japanese culture should already know that Japan is a very polite country, so learning how to say please and thank you are vitally important basic phrases in Japanese.

Bumping through a crowd you might want to shout ‘sumimasen!’

Also to get attention at a restaurant.

Please and thank yous are said a lot, but thank you much much more. So make sure to get ‘arigatou’ down!

Basic Phrases in Japanese: Other Essential Phrases

Next up we have some key basic phrases in Japanese to get you through the day, these are some of the most common phrases we’d use in Japanese!

Simple, yet effective in making your Japanese sound pretty decent at a beginner’s level.

Wo kudasai can be used when you’re pointing at something in a shop and asking for it.

Samui and Astui can be used when you’re strolling the parks of Kyoto in the winter or summer

Lastly, you’ll hear kanppai a lot at your local izakaya (Japanese pub)!

It sounds similar to the Chinese version that is ganbei 干杯 and also looks similar in characters also 乾杯 (note the 2nd character is the same as the Chinese equivalent).

Basic Phrases in Japanese: Questions

Lastly, we have the all-important questions in Japanese!

You might fear getting an answer in complicated Japanese… but that’s just all the more motivation you need to keep on learning Japanese!

It’s always worth a try, you may even end up understanding more than you think and surprising yourself!

First up let’s look at Japanese question words:

One important thing to note is that everything is pretty much backwards in Japanese grammar.

So when in English you place a question word or phrase at the start of a sentence, it goes at the end in Japanese. So if you’re looking for the train station, you’d ask;

“Eki wa doko desuka?” Play えきはどこですか？

Eki = Train station
Wa = (Topic particle marker)
Doko = Where
Desu = Is
Ka = ?

So now we’ve had a look at the question words, let’s have a look at a few more useful question phrases that use them:

So that’s it for the most important basic phrases in Japanese!

Whilst these are just beginner phrases in Japanese, they’re used a lot of the time in day to day chat as you can imagine.

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BONUS FREEBIE // Quiz

Now you’ve learnt the most basic phrases in Japanese, how many can you remember?

Have a try with our 20 question quick fire quiz and see how many you remembered.

Questions are all multiple choice and the answers are instant. What are you waiting for!

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Basic Phrases in Japanese || FAQs

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