Lesson 1 — Japanese Writing & Basic Expressions

The Japanese Writing System

Japanese uses three interlocking scripts, and most written Japanese combines all three:

Script	Japanese	Primary Use
Hiragana	ひらがな	Native Japanese words and grammar
Katakana	カタカナ	Loanwords, foreign names, emphasis
Kanji	漢字	Content words (nouns, verb stems, etc.)

Hiragana and katakana are phonetic syllabaries — each character represents a single syllable sound, similar in function to an alphabet. Kanji are logographic characters borrowed from Chinese, each carrying its own meaning.

Hiragana (ひらがな)

The word hiragana literally means “ordinary kana” or “simple kana.” It is the foundation of Japanese literacy and the first script learners study. Hiragana is used for:

Native Japanese vocabulary
Grammatical elements such as verb endings and particles
Pronunciation guides (furigana) placed above kanji

The Basic Hiragana Chart

	a	i	u	e	o
Vowels	あ	い	う	え	お
K	か	き	く	け	こ
S	さ	し	す	せ	そ
T	た	ち	つ	て	と
N	な	に	ぬ	ね	の
H	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ
M	ま	み	む	め	も
Y	や	—	ゆ	—	よ
R	ら	り	る	れ	ろ
W	わ	—	—	—	を
N	ん

💡 Note that し = shi, ち = chi, つ = tsu, and ふ = fu — these don’t follow the standard consonant + vowel pattern, so they are worth memorizing individually.

Basic Expressions and Phrases

Japanese	Romaji	English
こんにちは	Konnichiwa	Hello
おはよう	Ohayou	Good morning (casual)
げんきですか？	Genki desu ka?	How are you?
げんきです。	Genki desu.	I’m fine.
ちょうしはどうですか？	Choushi wa dou desu ka?	How’s everything going?
いいです。	Ii desu.	It’s good.
ありがとう。	Arigatou.	Thanks. (casual)
ありがとうございます。	Arigatou gozaimasu.	Thank you. (polite)

⚠️ Spelling note: “Hello” is こんにちは, ending in は (the particle wa), not こんにちわ. This is one of the most common writing mistakes for beginners.

Basic Sentence Structure

Japanese follows a Subject + Object + Predicate order — the verb or descriptor always comes at the end of the sentence. This is different from English, which uses Subject + Verb + Object order.

Core pattern:

「Noun + particle」+「Noun + particle」+ predicate (verb / adjective / noun + です)

Verb Sentences

Japanese	Romaji	English
わたしは＿＿＿をたべます。	Watashi wa ___ wo tabemasu.	I eat ___.
わたしは＿＿＿をたべません。	Watashi wa ___ wo tabemasen.	I don’t eat ___.

Noun Sentences with です

Japanese	Romaji	English
わたしは＿＿＿です。	Watashi wa ___ desu.	I am ___.
＿＿＿は＿＿＿です。	___ wa ___ desu.	___ is ___.

Pronouns

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning
わたし	watashi	I / me
あなた	anata	you
かれ	kare	he / him
かのじょ	kanojo	she / her

💡 Natural Japanese tip: In everyday conversation, Japanese speakers rarely use あなた (you). Instead, they address people directly by name — often followed by さん (san) as a polite title. For example, rather than saying “あなたは？”, a Japanese speaker would say “＿＿＿さんは？”

The Possessive Particle の

の (no) connects two nouns and shows possession or association — similar to “of” or “‘s” in English.

Japanese	Romaji	English
わたしのせんせい	watashi no sensei	my teacher
わたしのせんせいは＿＿＿です。	Watashi no sensei wa ___ desu.	My teacher is ___.

Nationalities with じん (人)

The suffix じん (人) means “person from” and is attached to a country name to indicate nationality.

Country	Japanese	Nationality
America	アメリカ	アメリカじん
Italy	イタリア	イタリアじん
Japan	にほん	にほんじん

Practice:

わたしは＿＿＿じんです。→ I am ___ (nationality).

Saying Your Age

Pattern: わたしは＿＿さいです。/ Watashi wa ___ sai desu. → I am ___ years old.

Numbers 1–10

Number	Hiragana	Romaji
1	いち	ichi
2	に	ni
3	さん	san
4	よん・し	yon / shi
5	ご	go
6	ろく	roku
7	なな・しち	nana / shichi
8	はち	hachi
9	きゅう・く	kyuu / ku
10	じゅう	juu

💡 4 and 9 have two readings each. よん (yon) and なな (nana) are the safer, more common options — し (shi) and く (ku) sound like the words for “death” (死) and “suffering” (苦) and are often avoided in certain contexts.

Building Larger Numbers

Japanese numbers are logical and build on the base ten. The pattern is simply: tens + ones.

Number	Japanese	Romaji
11	じゅういち	juuichi
19	じゅうきゅう	juukyuu
20	にじゅう	nijuu
24	にじゅうよん	nijuuyon
99	きゅうじゅうきゅう	kyuujuukyuu

Adjectives

Japanese adjectives can describe a noun directly or act as the predicate of a sentence.

Pattern: ＿＿＿は＿＿＿です。→ ___ is ___.

Japanese	Romaji	Meaning	Example
かわいい	kawaii	cute	Giorgia はかわいいです。

Useful Vocabulary

Food

Japanese	Romaji	English
たまご	tamago	egg
さかな	sakana	fish
チーズ	chiizu	cheese

💡 Katakana note: チーズ (cheese) is written in katakana because it is a loanword from English. Loanwords are almost always written in katakana.

Family

Japanese has two sets of family words: one used when referring to your own family, and one used when referring to someone else’s family. Using the wrong set is a common and important mistake to avoid.

Family Member	Your Own	Someone Else’s
Mother	はは (haha)	おかあさん (okaasan)
Father	ちち (chichi)	おとうさん (otousan)

Example:

わたしのははは＿＿＿です。→ My mother is ___.
＿＿＿さんのおかあさんは＿＿＿です。→ ___’s mother is ___.