Japanese Word for
こんにちはkonnichiwa
hello · good day · greetings
Written as
Meaning
Hello, good afternoon, good day. こんにちは is used from around midday to early evening. It evolved from a longer formal phrase and the は is a topic marker, not a regular は (ha).
Japanese greetings
おはよう
ohayō
good morning (casual)
おはようございます
ohayō gozaimasu
good morning (formal)
こんばんは
konbanwa
good evening
やあ
yā
hey, hi (very casual)
よろしく
yoroshiku
nice to meet you / please treat me well
はじめまして
hajimemashite
nice to meet you (first meeting)
こんにちは is usually written in hiragana rather than its kanji form 今日は. The は here is read as "wa" (a grammatical topic marker), not "ha" — a quirk that trips up many learners. The full original phrase was 今日はご機嫌いかがですか (konnichiwa go-kigen ikaga desu ka — "How are you feeling today?").
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