Japanese Vocabulary for Beginners: Your First 60 Words

Core vocabulary: the first 60 Japanese words

Context does the work English gives to articles and plurals. When number matters, Japanese adds a number and a counter: 本を二冊, “two books”.

Short answer: these 60 words cover the people, places, things and actions of an ordinary day, and you can build hundreds of sentences from them. Japanese nouns do not change: there is no “a” or “the”, and 本 hon means book or books. Verbs and adjectives do change their endings, so each verb here is shown in its dictionary form and its polite ます form.

People, places and things

Six of each to start. Many everyday nouns are two-kanji compounds read with on readings, like 学校 gakkō; short native words such as 家 ie use kun readings.

People

Places

Things

Ten everyday verbs

Japanese verbs come at the end of the sentence. The dictionary form is how you look a verb up and how friends speak; the ます form is the polite form you will use with everyone else at first.

Dictionary form	Meaning	Polite form
taberu	eat	食べます tabemasu
nomu	drink	飲みます nomimasu
iku	go	行きます ikimasu
kuru	come	来ます kimasu (irregular)
miru	see, watch	見ます mimasu
suru	do	します shimasu (irregular)
wakaru	understand	分かります wakarimasu
kau	buy	買います kaimasu
aru	there is (things)	あります arimasu
iru	there is (living beings)	います imasu

Adjectives

Japanese has two kinds of adjective. Most end in い and change their ending (い-adjectives); others take な before a noun (な-adjectives). The last two below are な-adjectives.

Time words

Several time words have special readings that do not follow the kanji: 今日 is kyō, not kon-nichi. Learn them as whole words.

Question words

With these six words and the question particle か you can ask about anything.

駅えきekistationはwa(topic)どこdokowhereですdesuisかka(question)

Eki wa doko desu ka.“Where is the station?”Why: The word order stays the same as a statement; か at the end makes it a question.

これkorethisはwa(topic)いくらikurahow muchですdesuisかka(question)

Kore wa ikura desu ka.“How much is this?”Why: The question word sits where the answer will go: これは千円です, “this is 1,000 yen”.

The next 24 words

Useful words to add once the first 60 are solid.

Opposite pairs

Learning words in pairs halves the effort.

Word	Meaning	Opposite
ōkii	big	小さい
atarashii	new	古い
takai	expensive	安い
nagai	long	短い
iku	go	来る
akeru	open	閉める

Check yourself

Try each one, then open the answer to check and hear it.

book
Show answer
hon
station
Show answer
eki
eat (polite)
Show answer
tabemasu
today
Show answer
kyō
Where is the station?
Show answer
Eki wa doko desu ka.

Sentences from the first 60 words

Every word in these sentences is on this page.

友達ともだちtomodachifriendとtowith学校がっこうgakkōschoolにnito行きますいきますikimasugo

Tomodachi to gakkō ni ikimasu.“I go to school with a friend.”Why: と means “with” after a person; に marks the destination. “A friend” or “friends”: context decides.

今日きょうkyōtodayはwa(topic)時間じかんjikantimeがga(subject)ありますarimasuthere is

Kyō wa jikan ga arimasu.“I have time today.”Why: Japanese says “as for today, time exists”. あります is used because time is not a living thing.

新しいあたらしいatarashiinew車くるまkurumacarはwa(topic)高いたかいtakaiexpensiveですdesuis

Atarashii kuruma wa takai desu.“New cars are expensive.”Why: An い-adjective goes straight before its noun. です adds politeness.

先生せんせいsenseiteacherがga(subject)分かりますわかりますwakarimasuunderstands

Sensei ga wakarimasu.“The teacher understands.”Why: が marks who does the understanding. With 分かる, the thing understood also takes が, which you will meet later.