Learn how to use expressions for greetings and partings
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. |
| In this lesson, I’m going to talk about how to use greetings and parting expressions in Japanese. |
| Okay, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| We’ve grouped the vocabulary according to time of day, so let’s start with expressions you can use in the morning. |
| First, we have: |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| This is a polite expression that means “good morning.” |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) [enunciated] |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) “Good morning.” |
| The shorter version is おはよう (Ohayō). |
| おはよう。 (Ohayō.) |
| This means, “morning.” |
| So, it sounds a little shorter in English, just as it sounds shorter in Japanese. |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) [To sound polite] |
| おはよう。 (Ohayō.) [To sound more casual and close to someone] |
| We use these expressions in the morning, for very early morning until probably 11:00 or just before noon. So we use this to greet someone in the morning. |
| If it’s later in the day, you can simply use, こんにちは (kon'nichiwa). |
| こんにちは (kon'nichiwa) |
| こんにちは (kon'nichiwa) [enunciated] |
| こんにちは (kon'nichiwa) |
| This means “hello.” |
| We use this throughout the day, any time the sun is up, later in the day, you can use this. |
| Finally, at the end of the day, we use this expression, こんばんは (konbanwa). |
| こんばんは (konbanwa) |
| こんばんは (konbanwa) [enunciated] |
| こんばんは (konbanwa) |
| This means “good evening,” good evening. |
| So, use this when you meet someone in the evening. Evening or, I suppose, late at night, depending on what you’re up to. If it’s dark outside, you can use こんばんは (konbanwa) with confidence. |
| So, let’s take a look at the other side of this image. Let’s look at parting expressions. |
| You’ll notice there’s a big group here because we don’t really have parting expressions that are connected so closely to time of the day. Let’s take a look. |
| First: |
| しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu) |
| しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu) |
| This is a very formal way to say “goodbye.” |
| You might hear this at work when you’re leaving a room. Your co-workers might use this as well. This means “goodbye.” We typically don’t use this with our friends and family members. It sounds quite polite. |
| You can use this expression: |
| またあした (mata ashita) |
| またあした (mata ashita) |
| またあした (mata ashita) [enunciated] |
| “See you tomorrow.” |
| またあした (mata ashita) |
| You can use this one. It’s very easy for many people. |
| バイバイ (bai bai) |
| バイバイ (bai bai) |
| So, as you can imagine, this just means “bye-bye.” |
| It’s very casual and sounds a little childish, but many people like to use this, especially with close friends and family members. |
| バイバイ (bai bai) |
| Next is じゃ、また (ja, mata). |
| じゃ、また (ja, mata) |
| So, this is a very casual expression, which means “see you.” |
| じゃ、また (ja, mata) |
| So, you can think of it as, like “okay, see you then.” Super short, super quick, very casual. |
| Finally is this one: |
| またね。 (Mata ne.) |
| またね。 (Mata ne.) |
| またね。 (Mata ne.) [enunciated] |
| またね。(Mata ne.) |
| So, this also means “see you” or “see you next time” or “see you again soon.” This ね (ne) makes it a little bit softer than something like じゃ、また (ja, mata), which sounds a little bit rougher. |
| So, you can use all of these expressions to say “goodbye” to someone at any time of the day. |
| The last vocabulary word here is this one: |
| おやすみなさい。 (Oyasumi nasai.) |
| おやすみなさい。 (Oyasumi nasai.) |
| おやすみなさい。 (Oyasumi nasai.) [enunciated] |
| おやすみなさい (Oyasumi nasai) means “goodnight.” |
| So, use it to say “goodnight” at the end of the day. You can use this with friends and family members. |
| So, this is how we say “goodbye” or “goodnight” at many different times of the day and how we greet each other. |
| Let’s take a look at the dialogue now and some other points that use these expressions. |
| Okay, let’s take a look at a sample dialogue that uses some of these expressions. |
| Let’s imagine two people are saying hello in the morning. |
| The first person might say: |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) “Good morning.” |
| And the other person might say: |
| おはよう。 (Ohayō.) “Morning.” |
| So, this is a very typical morning exchange. |
| おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| おはよう。 (Ohayō.) |
| Simple as that. |
| Okay, let’s finish this lesson by taking an in-depth look at the key expressions used. |
| First, let’s take a look at greetings. |
| As mentioned earlier, the expression, おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) is more polite than just おはよう (ohayō). We use おはよう (ohayō) with friends and family and people we’re close to. おはようございます (Ohayō gozaimasu) is something you would probably use at work or maybe at school. This ございます (gozaimasu) makes the expression polite. You’ll see this throughout your studies. Using the polite form of a verb at the ending increases the level of politeness. |
| We don’t have this with こんにちは (kon'nichiwa) or with こんばんは (konbanwa), but it is very important to note that both of these words are spelled with this は (wa) at the end. You may have learned that this means “huh,” but in these expressions, こんにちは (kon'nichiwa) and こんばんは (konbanwa), we use this は (wa) here like this. We don’t use the other Hiragana form of は (wa) in these expressions, so please take note of that when you’re spelling this word. |
| Lastly, let’s go to parting expressions. |
| First, with しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu), we see the same ます (masu) form at the ending, yeah? So this しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu), some people translate this literally as “I’m about to do something rude” or something like that because this part right here, しつれい (shitsurei) means “rude.” But we typically use it when we’re leaving a room or to excuse ourselves from a situation, so we can understand this as meaning “goodbye” in certain cases. When you’re with your friends, however, you can use expressions like またあした (mata ashita) or バイバイ (bai bai) or またね (mata ne) or おやすみなさい (oyasumi nasai) at the end of the day. |
| As talked about earlier, expressions that end with ね (ne) sound a little bit softer, so またね (mata ne). We would not use a ね (ne) at the end of something like バイバイ (bai bai) though because バイバイ (bai bai) already sounds quite soft and close and a little bit childish. So we don’t use バイバイね (bai bai ne) unless maybe we’re speaking to a very, very small child. |
| So, it’s up to you to choose the expression that best matches your feeling when you’re saying goodbye to someone. |
Comments
Hide