150 Common Japanese Words for Beginners (with Kana)

How to use this word list

Japanese words are grouped here by theme, because that is how you actually reach for them. When you walk into a shop you need greetings, numbers, and a couple of polite phrases, not a random slice of the dictionary. So each table below covers one situation or one part of speech, and the words inside it tend to show up together in real life. Learn a table, use it, and move to the next.

Every entry has three columns. The first is the Japanese itself, written in kana, with the kanji form where the word commonly uses one. The second is romaji, the Latin-letter spelling, so you can start saying the word before you can read the script. The third is the English meaning, kept short on purpose, because a word with one clear meaning is far easier to remember than one buried under five shades of nuance.

A quick word on the romaji. Long vowels are written with a plain doubled sound or a bar over the vowel depending on the source; here a long "o" or "u" is shown with a bar, as in romaji forms like "ohayo" that you hold slightly longer. When you see two of the same consonant, as in "gakko" style words, you make a small pause before it. None of this is worth stressing over at the start. Say the word, check it against the kana, and your ear will sort out the details fast. If you have not learned the scripts yet, read our guide to the Japanese alphabet first, then come back and the kana column will make sense.

One more thing before the lists. You do not need to memorize all 150 words this week. Skim everything once so you know what is here, then pick the two or three tables that match what you want to do first, whether that is basic greetings or ordering food, and drill those. The rest will still be here when you need them.

Greetings and goodbyes

Greetings are the fastest way to sound like you are actually speaking Japanese, and they are the words you will say most often, so they earn their place at the top. A few of these change with the time of day, and a few come in a casual and a polite version. When in doubt with someone you do not know well, use the longer, politer form.

Notice the pairs. Casual "ohayo" becomes polite "ohayo gozaimasu" simply by adding "gozaimasu," and the same softening shows up all over the language. The home ones are worth calling out too: someone leaving the house says "ittekimasu" and is answered with "itterasshai," and someone arriving home says "tadaima" and hears "okaeri" back. Learn them as pairs and they stick together.

Polite expressions

These are the small social words that keep interactions smooth. "Please," "thank you," "excuse me," and "sorry" do enormous work in Japanese, and a couple of them, like the phrases you say before and after a meal, have no direct English equivalent but are used constantly. Get comfortable with these and you can be polite in almost any short exchange even when your vocabulary runs out.

"Sumimasen" is the single most useful word in this table. It means "excuse me" to get someone's attention, "sorry" for a small bump, and even "thank you" when someone goes out of their way for you. If you learn one polite word first, learn that one. Right behind it is "onegaishimasu," a soft "please" you attach when asking for almost anything, from a coffee to a favor.

Pronouns and demonstratives

Here is a surprise for many learners: Japanese drops pronouns constantly. If it is obvious from context who you mean, you simply leave the word out, so "I" and "you" appear far less than they do in English. Still, you need to recognize them, and you need a few for the times context is not clear. The "this, that, that over there" set is included because you will point at things and name them from day one.

A note on the "I" words. "Watashi" is the safe, neutral choice for everyone in most situations. "Boku" and "ore" are used by men and carry a more casual or rougher feel, so as a beginner you can stick with "watashi" and be fine everywhere. About "anata," meaning "you," it is often better to use the person's name plus "san" rather than saying "anata" directly, which can sound blunt or overly direct depending on the situation.

Question words

Question words let you actually get information, which is most of what a traveler or new speaker needs. Pair these with a rising tone and the little question marker "ka" at the end of a sentence, and you can ask a lot with very little grammar. "Where is the station?" and "how much is this?" are built almost entirely from words in this small table.

Both "naze" and "doshite" mean "why," with "doshite" sounding a bit softer and more common in everyday speech. "Ikura" is the one to burn into memory before any shopping trip, since "kore wa ikura desu ka" simply means "how much is this?" and you will use it over and over.

Common verbs

Verbs are the engine of every sentence, and Japanese puts them at the end, which takes some getting used to. The good news is that Japanese verbs are wonderfully regular compared with many languages, and once you know a verb's dictionary form you can build its polite and past forms with reliable patterns. The words below are in their plain dictionary form, which is what you will find in any dictionary and what most study apps teach first.

Two of these deserve special mention. "Iru" and "aru" both mean "to exist," but "iru" is for living things like people and animals, while "aru" is for objects and things that do not move on their own. English does not split this, so it trips up beginners, but the rule is simple once you know it. Also note "suru," meaning "to do," which combines with many nouns to make new verbs, so learning it opens up a large family of words later on.

To make any of these polite, most beginners learn the "-masu" form early. The plain "taberu" (to eat) becomes "tabemasu," "nomu" (to drink) becomes "nomimasu," and so on. You can use the polite "-masu" forms in nearly every situation and never sound rude, which is exactly why they are taught first. Start there, and add the plain forms for casual speech once the polite ones feel automatic.

Common adjectives

Adjectives let you describe things, react to them, and give simple opinions, which is a huge part of small talk. Japanese has two adjective types, but the set below is mostly the first type, the ones that end in "-i," and they behave in neat, predictable ways. You can put one straight in front of a noun, as in "big house," or end a sentence with it plus "desu" to say "it is big."

"Oishii," meaning "delicious," is the crowd favorite, and saying it about someone's cooking or a good meal is always welcome. Watch the pair "takai," which means both "expensive" and "tall," with context making clear which you mean. And "yasashii" can mean "kind" about a person or "easy" about a task, so again the situation tells you which sense is in play.

Numbers

Numbers come up constantly: prices, times, phone numbers, quantities, and platform numbers at the station. The base set below gets you from one to ten and then to the big round numbers, and Japanese builds larger numbers by combining them, so twenty is simply "two ten" and so on. A few numbers have more than one reading depending on what follows, but the forms here are the standard ones to start with.

Counting in Japanese has a twist worth knowing early: the language uses special counter words for different kinds of objects, so counting flat things, long things, and people each has its own pattern. That is more than you need on day one, and the plain numbers above will carry you a long way first. When you are ready to go deeper, our full guide to Japanese numbers walks through the readings and the counters step by step.

Food and drink

Food words earn their keep fast, whether you are ordering, shopping, or just being polite about a meal. The words below cover the basics on a table plus the three daily meals, and note that "gohan" does double duty: it literally means cooked rice, but it also means a meal in general, which is why the meal words are built from it.

See how the meals are put together. "Asa" is morning, so "asagohan" is the morning meal, breakfast. "Hiru" is noon, so "hirugohan" is lunch. "Ban" is evening, so "bangohan" is dinner. Learn "gohan" and the times of day, and three more words fall into place for free. When you order, the polite pattern is the food plus "o onegaishimasu," so "coffee, please" is "kohi o onegaishimasu."

Travel and getting around

If you are learning Japanese for a trip, this table is your survival kit. Stations, trains, directions, and the handful of places you need to find in a hurry. Directions in particular pair naturally with the question words above, so "where is the toilet?" becomes a sentence you can build from two small tables.

"Eki," meaning station, is central to life in Japan, since so much runs on the rail network, and you will hear it inside longer words for specific stations too. "Migi" (right), "hidari" (left), and "massugu" (straight ahead) are the three you want ready when someone gives you directions or when you ask for them. And "toire," borrowed from the English "toilet," is the one nobody regrets learning early.

Time and the calendar

Time words let you make plans, describe your routine, and understand when something happens. The set below covers today, tomorrow, and yesterday, the parts of the day, and the building blocks for telling time and talking about weeks, months, and years. These combine with numbers constantly, so it is worth having both this table and the numbers table solid.

"Kyo" (today), "ashita" (tomorrow), and "kino" (yesterday) are the three you will reach for most in everyday talk. "Jikan" means both "time" in general and "hour" as a unit, while "fun" is the counter for minutes, so you will meet both when telling time. "Mainichi," meaning every day, is a lovely word to know because it lets you describe habits, which is exactly what a language routine is built on.

A note on politeness levels

You cannot get far in Japanese without meeting politeness levels, so it helps to understand them plainly rather than fear them. Japanese adjusts its wording to fit the relationship between speakers and the formality of the moment. The same idea can be said casually to a friend or politely to a stranger, and choosing the wrong level is one of the few mistakes that actually registers socially, so it is worth a little care.

For a beginner, the practical takeaway is simple: default to polite forms. The polite "-masu" verb endings and phrases like "arigato gozaimasu" and "sumimasen" are safe with almost anyone, including shop staff, strangers, coworkers, teachers, and people older or more senior than you. You will never offend someone by being a bit too polite. You can, however, sound rude by being too casual with the wrong person, so polite is the safer default while you are learning.

Casual forms, the plain verb endings and short phrases like "arigato" or "gomen," are for close friends, family, and people clearly younger or at your own level in a relaxed setting. As you spend time with the language you will develop a feel for when to relax into casual speech, and native speakers are generally forgiving of learners who lean polite. There is also a further layer of very formal, respectful language used in business and service settings, but that is well beyond what you need now, so set it aside until much later.

The reassuring part is that you do not have to master all of this to start. Learn each new word or phrase in its polite form first, since that is the version you can use everywhere, and add the casual form when you meet it. Getting the level roughly right, and staying polite when unsure, matters far more than perfect precision.

How to memorize these words

Reading a list of 150 words once will not put them in your memory, and staring at the list longer will not help much either. What works is spaced repetition paired with active recall, which is the same method serious learners use for any large vocabulary. The short version: review each word at growing intervals, and force yourself to recall it before you check, rather than just reading it again.

Here is how to run it in practice. Put each word on a flashcard, ideally in a spaced repetition app that schedules reviews for you. Show yourself the English or a picture, try to produce the Japanese from memory, say it out loud, and only then flip to check. If you got it, the app pushes the next review further out. If you blanked, it brings the card back soon. Over days and weeks this catches each word right before you would forget it, which is exactly when a review does the most good. We go deep on the technique in our guide to how to memorize vocabulary, and the same principles apply to every table on this page.

A few rules keep the habit alive rather than crushing you under a growing pile of reviews:

• Add only ten to twenty new words a day. Each new word comes back for many reviews over the following weeks, so a big burst today becomes an unbearable review load next month. Small and steady wins.
• Say every answer out loud. Recalling a word silently is fine for a written test, but you are learning to speak, so voice every review. It trains your mouth and your ear at the same time and costs nothing.
• Learn words inside short sentences. A word alone is harder to use than a word doing a job in a sentence. Put "taberu" inside "pan o tabemasu," meaning "I eat bread," and you learn the word and a usable pattern together.
• Feed your deck from real life. Words you met in a show, a song, or a real conversation stick far better than words pulled cold off a list, because they arrive with context and a memory attached.
• Be honest in your ratings. If you did not really recall a word, mark it as a miss even though it stings, because that is how the app knows to show it to you again soon.

Read the kana as you review, not just the romaji, so the script and the sound bind together in your memory. Within a few weeks you can usually drop the romaji entirely and read the words in hiragana and katakana, which is a real milestone and makes everything afterward faster.

How to start speaking them

Here is the gap almost every learner hits: you can recognize a word instantly on a flashcard, then reach for it in a real conversation and find it simply is not there. Recognizing a word you are shown is a fraction of the work of pulling the right word out of thin air, at speed, while also arranging grammar and keeping the conversation moving. Cards train the easy half. Only speaking trains the hard half.

So build speaking in from the start, even with a tiny vocabulary. You do not need to be advanced to say your first Japanese sentences out loud, and starting early is exactly how the words cross from recognition into speech. A simple progression works well:

• Say your reviews out loud. Every flashcard becomes a tiny speaking rep when you voice the answer instead of thinking it. This is the cheapest speaking practice there is.
• Build set phrases you can drop in whole. Learn "kore o onegaishimasu" for "this one, please," or "eki wa doko desu ka" for "where is the station?" as ready-made chunks, so you can use them without assembling grammar under pressure.
• Rehearse real situations. Run through ordering food, buying a ticket, or greeting someone, out loud, start to finish, using the tables above. Scripted practice makes the words automatic before you need them for real.
• Then have real, two-way conversations. The final step is unscripted exchange, where you have to understand a reply you did not expect and answer on the spot. Nothing else builds real speaking ability the same way.

That last step is the one learners avoid, because speaking needs a partner and a patient one is not always around, and because fumbling in front of a real person feels uncomfortable. This is where an AI speaking partner helps. SPAIKING gives you someone to speak Japanese with whenever you want, that never gets bored of your mistakes and corrects your pronunciation as you go. You finish your reviews, open it, and use your fresh words in a real spoken conversation, which is what finally drags them from "I know this on a card" to "I can say this." You can see how it works on our pricing page, or start from the home page.

Treat the two halves as one loop. Your flashcards keep the words in your head, and speaking pulls them out under real pressure, which both proves they are usable and strengthens them further. Every word you reach for and cannot find in a conversation becomes tomorrow's flashcard, so your speaking keeps feeding your deck the exact words you need. Review, speak, capture what you missed, repeat. Do a small version of this most days and the list on this page turns into a language you can actually talk in.

One closing thought. Vocabulary is the raw material of a language, but it is not the language itself, and a long word list is only worth as much as the sentences you build and say with it. Learn these 150 words with real reviews, keep them tied to their kana, stay polite while you are unsure, and above all get them out of your mouth in real conversation as early as you can. Do that, and you are not just memorizing Japanese, you are speaking it.