Basic Japanese Vocabulary Words

You will begin learning many Japanese words. Just like in English, some words are more common than others. We will start with the more common words and progress toward the less frequently used ones.

Interrogatives:
doko - where
nani - what
dare - who
ikutsu - how many

Nouns:
ai - love
heya - room
hon - book
hito - person
inu - dog
kami - god
neko - cat

Verbs:
aruku - to walk
hanasu - to speak
hashiru - to run
korosu - to kill
miru - to see, to watch
taberu - to eat

Pronouns:
watashi - I
anata - you
kare - he
kanojo - she
watas**tachi - we
anatatachi/anatagata - you (plural)
karetachi/karera - them (when referring to a group that includes males)
kanojotachi/kanojora - them (for an all-female group)

Note: As I stated earlier, Japanese pronouns are far less common in polite speech than their English counterparts. Also note that these pronouns can be made plural by adding -tachi, but where others exist (for "you" and "them," above), the other ones are more common.

Adjectives:

akai - red
aoi - blue
kuroi - black
shiroi - white
osoi - slow
hayai - fast



This article was used with permission from:
Japanese is Possible