150 Common Japanese Words for Beginners (with Kana)

How to use this word list

The fastest way to get value from a list of Japanese words is to treat it as a menu, not a wall to memorize in one sitting. Nobody learns 150 words in an afternoon and keeps them. What works is picking a theme that matches what you actually need this week, learning a handful of words from it well, saying them out loud, and then coming back for more once those first ones stick. The themes here are arranged roughly in the order a beginner meets them, so greetings and polite phrases come first, and food and travel come once you can already handle a basic exchange.

Each table gives you three things: the word written in Japanese, the romaji, and the English meaning. The Japanese is written the way you would really see it, in hiragana, katakana, or kanji depending on the word. Katakana mostly shows up for words borrowed from other languages, like coffee or hotel, while hiragana and kanji carry everything native. If the script still looks like a wall of shapes to you, start with our guide to the Japanese alphabet, which walks through hiragana, katakana, and kanji and how the three fit together.

The romaji is there so you can say every word today, before your reading is fluent. Use it as a bridge, not a home. Romaji smooths over real Japanese sounds, and leaning on it too long slows your reading down, so the moment you can read kana, start reading the Japanese column and let the romaji fade into a backup. One small habit pays off more than any other while you work through these tables: read every word out loud. A word you have only seen is a word you cannot yet say, and saying them is the whole point.

A quick note on politeness levels

Before the words themselves, you need one idea that shapes all of them: Japanese changes its wording depending on who you are speaking to. The same thought can be said in a plain, casual way among close friends, or in a polite way with strangers and colleagues, or in an even more formal, honorific way in professional and ceremonial settings. This is not optional decoration. Using the wrong level can sound rude or oddly stiff, so it helps to know the map even before you fill it in.

There are three broad levels worth naming. The plain form, sometimes called casual form, is what you use with family, close friends, and children. The polite form, built on the endings です (desu) and ます (masu), is the courteous default for almost everyone else: shop staff, coworkers, people you just met, anyone you want to treat with basic respect. Above that sits 敬語 (keigo), a set of honorific and humble forms used in formal or business situations, which you can safely leave for later.

Here is the practical advice, and it makes your early learning much simpler: as a beginner, learn the polite です and ます forms first. They are correct and welcome in nearly every situation you will actually find yourself in as a visitor or new learner, from a restaurant to a train station to a first conversation. You will rarely offend anyone by being a little too polite, while being too casual with the wrong person lands badly. That is why several verbs below list the polite form next to the plain one, and why the phrases lean polite. One more everyday habit: attach the suffix さん (san) to people's names, as in Tanaka-san, to show ordinary respect. Do not attach it to your own name.

Greetings and everyday expressions

Greetings are where every real conversation starts, and Japanese has a specific phrase for almost every moment of the day and every comer and goer in a household. These are high value words because you use them constantly and because saying them naturally makes a strong first impression. Notice how the morning greeting has both a casual and a polite version, which is your first live example of the politeness levels from the last section.

A few of these deserve a note. いってきます and いってらっしゃい are a pair: the person leaving the house says the first, and the person staying answers with the second. Likewise ただいま and おかえりなさい pair up when someone comes home. These little exchanges are woven into daily family life, and knowing them makes you sound like someone who has actually spent time around the language rather than a phrasebook reader.

Polite words and set phrases

If greetings open a conversation, these polite words keep it smooth. Japanese social life runs on courtesy, and a small set of set phrases carries an enormous amount of that weight. Two of them do especially heavy lifting: すみません (sumimasen) works as excuse me, sorry, and even a way to get a waiter's attention, while お願いします (onegai shimasu) is the all-purpose please when you ask for something. Learn those two cold and you will use them a dozen times a day.

The two eating phrases are worth calling out because they surprise newcomers. いただきます is said quietly before a meal, a small thanks for the food, and ごちそうさまでした is said after finishing. You do not need a religious reason to use them; they are simply what people say, and joining in feels natural fast. And 大丈夫です (daijoubu desu) is a Swiss army phrase meaning it is fine, I am okay, or no thank you, depending on the situation, so it earns its place early.

Pronouns and words for people

Japanese pronouns work differently from English ones in two ways worth knowing before you memorize them. First, Japanese speakers drop pronouns constantly when the meaning is clear, so you will say them far less than you would in English. Second, the word for I depends on who you are and how formal you are being, which ties right back into politeness.

For the word I, start with 私 (watashi). It is polite, neutral, and works for everyone in almost every setting. 僕 (boku) is a softer casual I used mainly by men and boys, and 俺 (ore) is a rougher, very casual masculine I you will hear among friends but should not use in polite company. As for あなた (anata), the textbook word for you, be careful: Japanese speakers often avoid it and use the person's name plus さん instead, because a direct you can feel too blunt. When in doubt, use the name.

Common Japanese verbs

Verbs are the engine of every sentence, and Japanese puts the verb at the end, so getting comfortable with a core set of them opens up a huge amount of expression. The good news is that Japanese verbs are extremely regular compared with many languages, with only a couple of true irregulars. Below, each verb shows the plain dictionary form and the polite ます form, so you can see the pattern and use the polite version straight away.

Notice the pattern in the polite column. Most verbs form the polite present by swapping their ending for ます (masu), which is why the two forms look related. The two you should simply memorize as special are する (suru, to do) and 来る (kuru, to come); they bend in ways the others do not. Also watch the pair いる and ある, which both mean to exist but split by whether the thing is alive. You use いる for people and animals and ある for objects, and mixing them up is a classic beginner slip that is easy to fix once you notice it.

One verb here quietly matters more than the rest for a learner: 分かる (wakaru, to understand). The phrase 分かりました (wakarimashita, I understood) and its opposite 分かりません (wakarimasen, I do not understand) will be two of your most-used sentences in your first months, so drill them until they come without thinking.

Common Japanese adjectives

Adjectives add color, opinion, and detail, and Japanese splits them into two groups that behave differently, so it pays to learn which group each one belongs to from the start. The label in the table tells you: i-adjectives end in the sound い and conjugate on their own, while na-adjectives behave more like nouns and need a small helper to attach to what they describe.

Why does the i-adjective and na-adjective split matter? Because it changes how you use the word in a sentence. An i-adjective like 大きい (ookii, big) can sit right in front of a noun as it is, and it changes its own ending to become past or negative. A na-adjective like 綺麗 (kirei, pretty) needs な before a noun, as in 綺麗な花 (kirei na hana, a pretty flower). You do not need to master the grammar today, but tag each new adjective with its type as you learn it and the rules will feel obvious later.

A couple of these words carry more than one meaning and are worth a second look. 高い (takai) means both tall or high and expensive, so context decides. And いい (ii, good) is one of the few slightly irregular i-adjectives; its past and negative forms come from an older reading, so 良かった (yokatta) means it was good. Do not let that scare you off; it is a single exception you meet early and then never worry about again.

Question words

Question words are where speaking really opens up, because with them you can find out anything you do not yet know how to say. Japanese question words are refreshingly simple to use: you often just drop the question word into a normal sentence and add the particle か (ka) at the end to mark it as a question. There is no need to flip the word order the way English does.

The word for what has two readings, 何 as nani or nan, and which one you use depends on the sound that follows, with nan appearing before certain sounds like the copula, as in 何ですか (nan desu ka, what is it?). Do not overthink it; your ear picks it up quickly. Two words here are travel gold: いくら (ikura, how much) for prices and どこ (doko, where) for finding things. Pair どこ with the phrase どこですか (doko desu ka, where is it?) and you can navigate almost any station or shop.

Numbers and counting

Numbers come up the moment you shop, tell time, or ask a price, so they are worth learning early even though they take a little drilling. Japanese numbers are built on a clean base-ten system, which means once you know one through ten plus the words for hundred, thousand, and ten thousand, you can build almost any number by combining them.

The building logic is genuinely tidy. Eleven is just ten-one (十一, juuichi), twenty is two-ten (二十, nijuu), and thirty-five would be three-ten-five (三十五, sanjuugo). A couple of numbers have two readings you should know, because both are common: four is shi or yon, seven is shichi or nana, and nine is kyuu or ku. Japanese speakers often prefer yon and nana to avoid shi, which sounds like the word for death, so leaning on yon and nana is a safe habit.

One thing to flag so it does not trip you later: counting actual objects in Japanese uses special counter words that change depending on what you are counting, flat things, long things, small animals, people, and so on. That system is a topic of its own and beyond a starter word list. For a fuller walk through reading, saying, and counting, see our dedicated guide to Japanese numbers, which covers the counters and the money and date patterns you will actually use.

Food and eating

Food is one of the best reasons to learn Japanese and one of the first places you will put your words to work, whether you are reading a menu, ordering at a counter, or telling someone what you cannot eat. This set covers the staples you will see everywhere, plus a couple of phrases that make eating out smooth.

A few practical notes for the table. ご飯 (gohan) means cooked rice, but it also means a meal in general, so 朝ご飯 (asagohan) is breakfast, literally morning meal. When you sit down hungry, お腹がすいた (onaka ga suita, I am hungry) is the natural thing to say, and when you are ready to pay, お会計お願いします (o-kaikei onegai shimasu, the bill please) puts two of your new words together into a real, useful sentence. That combining is exactly how a word list turns into speech.

Travel and getting around

If you are learning Japanese for a trip, these are the words that get you from the airport to your hotel and back out into the city without getting stuck. Japan's train system is famously dense, so the words for station, train, and ticket earn their keep immediately, and the direction words help you follow or ask for a route.

The three place words ここ (koko, here), そこ (soko, there), and あそこ (asoko, over there) are part of a neat family in Japanese where words for near-me, near-you, and far-from-both follow the same shape, so learning these three teaches you a pattern you will see again. And the single most useful travel sentence you can build from this page is a place word plus はどこですか (wa doko desu ka), as in トイレはどこですか (toire wa doko desu ka, where is the toilet?). Swap the noun and that one frame gets you to almost anything.

Time, days, and when

Time words let you make plans, catch trains, and answer the constant everyday question of when. Start with the simple anchors of now, today, tomorrow, and yesterday, then add the parts of the day and the days of the week. Together they cover most of what a beginner needs to schedule anything.

The days of the week follow a pattern that is genuinely fun once you see it, because each one is built from a natural element or planet plus the word 曜日 (youbi, day of the week). Here is the full set.

Look at how they are built and they stop being seven separate things to memorize. 月 (moon) gives Monday, 火 (fire) Tuesday, 水 (water) Wednesday, 木 (tree) Thursday, 金 (gold) Friday, 土 (earth) Saturday, and 日 (sun) Sunday. Learn the seven elements and the days come almost for free, which is a small taste of how Japanese vocabulary rewards you for spotting its building blocks.

How to memorize these words

A list is only as good as what you do with it, and the difference between learners who keep hundreds of Japanese words and those who forget last week's set comes down to method, not talent. Reading a table over and over feels productive, but rereading builds only weak recognition that fades within days. The two habits that actually build lasting memory are active recall and spaced repetition, and they work together.

Active recall means trying to produce a word from memory before you check it. Instead of reading 駅 = eki = station over and over, cover the answer, look at the English, and force yourself to say the Japanese out loud from nothing. That small effort of retrieval, the mild struggle to dredge the word up, is exactly what tells your brain the word is worth keeping. Recognizing a word when you see it is easy and teaches little; pulling it up cold is harder and teaches a lot. Every table on this page becomes a recall drill the moment you cover one column and produce it from the other.

Spaced repetition means reviewing each word at growing intervals rather than cramming. You see a word today, again tomorrow, then a few days later, then a week later, and each time you recall it correctly the next gap grows. Reviewing a word right before you would forget it is what makes it last, and a spaced repetition app schedules all of that timing for you across hundreds of words. If either of these ideas is new, our full guides on how to memorize vocabulary and the mechanics behind it will show you exactly how to build the habit.

A few specifics make memorizing Japanese words easier in particular. Learn words in the themed groups you see here, because related words prop each other up and give your memory hooks to hang them on. Put new words into short sentences rather than leaving them as bare items, since a word inside a sentence is a word you can actually use. Add audio or say each word aloud so you learn its sound, not just its shape. And feed your reviews with words you have actually met in a show, a song, or a conversation, because a word that already has a memory attached sticks far better than a random entry off a list. Keep your daily additions small, ten to twenty new words, and steady, and you will be surprised how fast the pile grows without ever feeling like a grind.

How to start speaking them

Here is the honest gap that trips up nearly every vocabulary-focused learner: knowing a word on a list is not the same as producing it in a live conversation. You can ace a flashcard of お願いします and still freeze when a shopkeeper is waiting for your reply. The word lives in the part of memory that answers prompts, not yet in the part that speaks under pressure. Closing that gap is a separate skill, and it only comes from speaking.

The bridge from list to speech is shorter than it looks if you build it deliberately. First, say every word out loud as you learn it, so each review is a tiny rep of producing speech rather than just recognizing shapes. Second, learn set phrases and chunks, not only single words. Phrases like お願いします, どこですか, and 大丈夫です drop into speech whole, so you can say something useful without assembling grammar in the moment. Third, build tiny sentences from the frames on this page, swapping one word at a time, so a single pattern gives you a dozen real utterances.

Then you have to actually talk, because there is no way around the two-way pressure of a real conversation, an unexpected reply you have to understand and answer on the spot. The trouble is that a patient Japanese speaker who will let you grope for words at your own pace is not always available, and plenty of learners feel too self-conscious to practice on a real person while they fumble. That is exactly where an AI speaking partner helps. It is there whenever you are, it never tires of your mistakes, and it lets you use your freshly learned words in real spoken conversation without any fear of being judged.

That is what SPAIKING is built for. You learn your words with recall and spaced repetition, then open SPAIKING and have a spoken conversation with an AI partner, deliberately reaching for the words you just studied. Because it responds like a real person, you get the live pressure that finally moves a word from your memory into your mouth, and because it corrects your pronunciation as you go, you find out in the moment which words you can say cleanly and which still need work. If you want the wider plan for going from first words to speaking, our vocabulary guide and the rest of the blog fill in the rest, and you can start turning these words into conversation from the pricing page or straight from the SPAIKING home page.

So take one theme from this page, learn ten words from it well enough to say them without looking, and use three of them in a real spoken sentence today. That is the whole loop in miniature: learn a small batch, recall it out loud, and speak it for real. Do that a few times a week and the list on this page stops being something you study and becomes Japanese you can actually speak.