LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Basic Japanese S1 #3
Basic Japanese #3: Basic Greetings
2

# 3
COPYRIGHT © 2016 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Remember in our previous lesson, we learned こんにちは。 (Konnichiwa) is a general
greeting meaning hi or hello. In this lesson, we are going to learn more general
greetings おはようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) こんばんは。 (Konbanwa..) and
おやすみなさい。

(Oyasuminasai.) おはよう。 (ohayō.) means good morning and おはようございます。

(Ohayō gozaimasu.) is a more polite way to say it because ございます (gozaimasu)
increases the politeness level of the phrase. As we learned, こんにちは。
(Konnichiwa.) is a general greeting that means hi or hello but it can also mean good
afternoon. こんばんは、 (Konbanwa.) means good evening and usually people use it
after sunset. おやすみなさい。 (Oyasuminasai.) is usually used before going to bed.
This phrase comes from the verb やすむ。 (yasumu.) which means to take rest or to
go to bed. お(o) is a prefix used to make a phrase polite. So this literally means please
go to bed in a polite way.

So now, you learned all the basic greetings to use throughout the day. Let’s practice. お
はようございます。 (Ohayō gozaimasu.) こんにちは。 (Konnichiwa.) こんばんは。
(Konbanwa.) おやすみなさい。 (Oyasuminasai.)

Now it’s time for Hiroko’s hint. When you want to say おはようございます。 (Ohayō
gozaimasu.) or おやすみなさい。 (Oyasuminasai.) to your friends or family, you can
say おはよう。 (Ohayō.) or おやすみ。 (Oyasumi.)

JAPANESEPOD101.COM BASIC JAPANESE S1 #3 - BASIC JAPANESE #3: BASIC GREETINGS 2 2