Hello.
A neutral daytime greeting. The written は at the end sounds wa.
FREE BEGINNER LESSON 1 · JAPANESE
Japanese: First words
Say hello, greet someone politely and say goodbye.
Neutral and polite greetings · casual farewell. Learn the meaning, listen to the pronunciation, then practise in the interactive lesson.
Try your first lessonOpening vocabulary referenceUseful Japanese phrases and their meanings
Good morning.
The full expression is polite; friends may say おはよう.
Thank you.
A polite thank you. The final u in ございます is often very light.
See you.
A friendly casual farewell; use with friends rather than a customer.
How the sentence works
Japanese uses hiragana, katakana and kanji together. こんにちは is a daytime hello: its final は is pronounced wa. おはようございます is a polite morning greeting. またね is a casual see you, more natural between friends than a formal farewell.
A short conversation in Japanese
Hello.
Hello.
See you.
Words to recognise
hello
morning
thanks
again
Listen to the whole phrase before focusing on each word. You can replay as often as you like, and the interactive lesson uses pictures and a short exchange to put the meaning in context.
Open the interactive lessonThe opening six teaching lessons are free, including the mini-tests after lessons three and six. A test accepts any answer and shows the score and corrections at the end. No typing or speaking aloud is required.
Keep learning Japanese
Free five-minute audio lesson and MP3 · Language learning games
The pronunciation uses prepared synthetic voices. Credits and licences explain the free voice models. Independent native-speaker certification is not claimed.