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Japan Know How

Greetings in Japanese

Greetings in Japanese

Japanese greetings are chosen by the clock, not by the person. There is no all-purpose “hello”: ohayou gozaimasu until late morning, konnichiwa through the afternoon, konbanwa after dark. Use the wrong one and nothing bad happens, but you sound like you learned the language from a phrasebook that did not mention it.

The trap is konnichiwa. Textbooks give it as “hello”, so learners use it on colleagues at nine in the morning and on the family they are staying with. Japanese speakers do neither — inside a workplace or a household the morning greeting is ohayou gozaimasu at any hour of the day, including the night shift.

All 14 phrases in this section

Each one has its own page with the kana, the romaji, a literal breakdown of what the words actually say, and a note on when it fits and when it does not.

The rest of the phrasebook

All 337 phrases →