100+ Useful Conversational Words & Phrases in Japanese
Are you thinking about learning Japanese but find yourself struggling to find resources that help you start speaking?
When I started out, I certainly did.
Many of the tools that I found when I started learning Japanese were grammar-heavy textbook style resources and they didn’t offer me a lot in terms of day-to-day conversation. Rather than learning how to say “what did you do last weekend?” I memorized a bunch of rules involving particles or sentence structure and I was nowhere near conversing with my fellow Japanese speakers.
So I decided to put something together on my own so that I could feel more confident engaging in language exchanges.
And today, I’d like to share it with you.
In this post you’ll find a short selection of the 100+ conversational phrases and words in Japanese I have available as part of a downloadable PDF that you can get by entering your email in the box below.
They’re the phrases I get the most mileage with when I converse in Japanese. I hope you find them useful, too.
Happy Japanese language learning!
Get your free PDF with 100+ Conversational Japanese Words and Phrases
Greetings
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| Hello/Good day | こんにちは | konnichiwa |
| Hello (on the phone/Skype) | もしもし | moshi moshi |
| How are you? | おげんきですか？ | ogenki desu ka?> |
| I’m good. | げんきです | genki desu |
| Long time no see. | おしゃしぶりです | oshashiburidesu |
Basic & Polite Phrases
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| Please | おねがいします | onegaishimasu |
| Thank you so much | どうもありがとうございま | doumo arigatou gozaimasu |
| Excuse me | すみません | sumimasen |
| I’m sorry | ごめんなさい | gomennasai |
| You’re welcome | どういたしまして | douitashimashite |
Get the Conversation Rolling
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| Are you busy now? | いまいそがしいですか？ | ima isogashii desu ka? |
| What are you plans this weekend? | こんしゅうまつよていがありますか？ | konshuumatsu yotei ga arimasu ka? |
| How is your family? | かぞくのみなさんわいかがですか？ | kazoku no minasan wa ikaga desu ka? |
| Tell me about yourself | じこしょうかいをおねがいします | jiko shoukai o onegaishimasu |
| What do you think? | どうおもいますか? | dou omoimasu ka? |
Getting a Bit of Clarification
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| How do you say that in English? | それわえいごでなんといいますか？ | sore wa eigo de nanto iimasu ka? |
| I don’t understand. | わかりません | wakarimasen |
| I forgot | わすれました | wasuremashita |
| I don’t know. | しりません | shirimasen |
| Can you please say it slowly? | もとゆっくりはんして? | moto yukkuri hanshite? |
Words About Time
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| Every day | まいにち | mai nichi |
| Sometimes | じじ | jiji |
| Now | いま | ima |
| Later | あとで | atode |
| Maybe | たぶん | tabun |
Exclamations & Transition Words to Take Your Speaking to the Next Level
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| That’s a good question | それはよいしつもんですね | Sore wa yoishitsu mondesu ne |
| Alright | だいじょうぶ | daijoubu |
| Wait a moment | ちょっとまってください | chotto matte kudasai |
| Don’t worry | くよくよするな | kuyokuyo suru na |
| Oops | おっとっと | ottotto |
Conversation Closers
| English | Japanese | Transliteration |
| Thank you for your time | おいそがしいところありがとうございました | o isogashii tokoro arigatou gozaimashita |
| see you later | じゃあまた | jaa mata |
| see you | またね | matane |
| Goodbye | さようなら | sayounara |
*Please note that most of the above examples use formal language, assuming that you’re getting to know the person that you’re speaking with.
Get your free PDF with 100+ Conversational Japanese Words and Phrases
Are you learning Japanese? What are some phrases that you’ve found useful in your target language? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
