Thank You in Japanese (and Other Useful Phrases)

If you’re about to start a Japanese language learning journey, you’re in for a treat! It’s a rich and expressive language.
There are quite a few words in Japanese that don’t even exist in other languages, like “shinrinyoku”, which means forest bathing, and “Yuugen”, an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses that are too mysterious and deep for words (how cool is that?!). There are also three writing systems in Japanese, but let’s take things one step at a time.
You might be feeling excited but perhaps a little worried about what you’re getting yourself into. People say that Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn, after all. Don’t worry, we’re going to ease you into things with some basic and very useful phrases in Japanese.
If you want to save these words and phrases and learn them using activities and reading, join LingQ for free.
Learning thank you in Japanese could be the beginning of your road to fluency!

Thank you 

ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu)

Please 

ください (kudasai)

Excuse me 

すみません (sumimasen)

Hello 

今日は (konnichiwa)

Good morning/afternoon/evening 

お早うございます (ohayō gozaimasu)

今日は (konnichiwa)

今晩は (konbanwa)

Goodbye

さようなら (sayōnara)

How are you? 

お元気ですか (o genki desu ka)

Nice to meet you  

初めまして (hajimemashite)

You’re welcome  

どういたしまして (dō itashimashite)

What’s your name? / My name is…

お名前はなんですか (o-namae wa nan desu ka) /愛佳です (Aika desu)

Where are you from? / I’m from…

出身はどこですか (Shusshin wa doko desu ka?) / 出身です (… shusshin desu)

I’m from the United States.

アメリカ出身です (Amerika shusshin desu)

I’m from Canada.

カナダ出身です (Kanada shusshin desu)

Do you speak…? 

…はできますか (… dekimasu ka)

Do you speak English?

英語はできますか (Eigo dekimasu ka)

Do you speak Japanese?

日本語はできますか (Nihongo dekimasu ka)

Where is the…?

…はどこですか (… wa doko desu ka)

Where is the bus stop?

バス停はどこですか (basutei wa doko desu ka)

Where is the supermarket?

停はどこですか (Sūpāmāketto wa doko desu ka)

Cheers!

乾杯 (kanpai)

Bon appetit!

いただきます (itadakimasu)

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Want to learn more Japanese? Join LingQ for free today and work your way through the Japanese LingQ Beginner Course.
LingQ gives you access to 1000s of hours of lessons, and you can import Japanese content you find online to read, learning words and phrases as you go. Here’s how the Japanese content in this post looks as a lesson.

All words are blue until you click to see the translation and the system knows you’re learning them, which turns them yellow. When you finally know a word or phrase it has no colour.

Yellow words and phrases are learned through activities and seeing them again and again in future lessons.

This way you learn the words and phrases in context. No drilling or studying from lists!
The LingQ system tracks all progress, so you can see how close you are to the next proficiency level in Japanese at any time. What are you waiting for? 

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