Japanese vocabulary · 19 words
Japanese family words
Japanese uses different family words depending on whose family it is. When you talk about your own family to someone outside it, you use the plain, humble words like ちち and はは. When you talk about someone else's family, or address your own parents directly, you use the polite forms like おとうさん and おかあさん.
Examples are written in kana. New to it? Start with the hiragana chart.
Good to know
- There is no single word for brother or sister: あに is an older brother and おとうと a younger one.
- To say you have a sibling, you say they exist, with いる: おとうとが いる.
- People are counted with ひとり, ふたり, then the counter にん: さんにん, よにん.
Your own family
| Japanese | Kanji | Romaji | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ちち | 父 | chichi | (my) father | |
| はは | 母 | haha | (my) mother | |
| あに | 兄 | ani | older brother | |
| あね | 姉 | ane | older sister | |
| おとうと | 弟 | otouto | younger brother | |
| いもうと | 妹 | imouto | younger sister | |
| きょうだい | 兄弟 | kyoudai | siblings |
Polite family words
| Japanese | Kanji | Romaji | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| おとうさん | お父さん | otousan | father | |
| おかあさん | お母さん | okaasan | mother | |
| おじいさん | 祖父 | ojiisan | grandfather | |
| おばあさん | obaasan | grandmother, female senior-citizen |
People and counting people
| Japanese | Kanji | Romaji | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| おとな | 大人 | otona | adult | |
| おんな | 女 | onna | woman | |
| おんなのこ | 女の子 | onnanoko | girl | |
| ひとり | 一人 | hitori | one person | |
| ふたり | 二人 | futari | two people | |
| さんにん | 三人 | san nin | 3 people | |
| よにん | 四人 | yo nin | 4 people | |
| はたち | 二十歳 | hatachi | 20 years old |
Practice this in Open Lingo
This page comes from the Open Lingo course. In the app it is a short interactive lesson with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try it.
Keep going
- ある vs いるHow to say there is or I have in Japanese with ある (things) and いる (people and animals), and their negatives ない and いない.
- NumbersJapanese numbers for beginners: Sino-Japanese いち, に, さん, the native ひとつ, ふたつ counting set, and hundreds, thousands and 万, with audio.
- Greetings and polite phrasesEssential Japanese greetings and polite phrases for beginners, with hiragana, romaji, meaning and audio, taken from the Open Lingo course.