
Sometimes you’ll hear 喉が乾いた, nodo ga kawaita, which means “I’m thirsty”. お腹が空いた ( onaka ga suita) means “I’m hungry” and you’ll often hear characters whine about this. The same is true for the verb desu, where the final “u” sound gets nearly dropped so it sounds like “des” instead of “de-sue”. Instead, the Japanese “smoosh” this sound together to sound more like “ski”.
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Pro tip: A rookie mistake is to pronounce suki as “sue-key”. If a character tells another character simply “ Suki” or “ Daisuki da yo”, they’re confessing their feelings and saying “I like you” or “I love you”. Instead, you’ll hear anime characters (and people in real life) use suki and daisuki instead. So while 愛してる ( aishiteru) is often translated as “I love you”, you won’t hear it often. In Japanese culture, they don’t normally say “I love you” like in Western culture.

You can’t watch anime without hearing this one! 好き ( suki) and 大好き ( daisuki) mean “like” and “love”. You’ll hear other variations of it too, like 頑張ろう ( ganbarou), which means “let’s do our best.” Suki and Daisuki 頑張って ( ganbatte) means “Good luck” or “Do your best!” It’s an encouraging phrase to say to someone before they tackle something tough, like a hard exam.

It’s said before meals to show appreciation for the food, the chef, and those eating with you.Īfter you’re done eating, you’ll hear ごちそうさまでした ( gochisousama deshita) which means “thank you for this meal.” Ganbatte! いただきます ( itadakimasu) means “Let’s eat” or “Bon appetit”. In response, you can say はい, hai, meaning “yes” or state 大丈夫 to mean “I’m alright” or “it’s okay.” Itadakimasu This means, “Are you alright?” or “Is it okay (for me to do, etc.)?” If you raise the intonation at the end or add the formal ending ですか ( desu ka), it becomes 大丈夫? / 大丈夫ですか, daijoubu? / daijoubu desu ka. It can be a question or a statement and is used in many different situations. 大丈夫 ( daijoubu) means “okay” or “alright”. You’ll often hear people crying to be rescued in anime like “ Tasuketeeeeeeeee!” Daijoubu 助けて ( tasukete) means “help” in Japanese. The “o” is honorific, so sometimes it’s dropped in casual situations, becoming niichan and neechan. But sometimes younger characters say this when talking to someone older whom they admire, look up to, and have a close relationship with. They mean “older brother” and “older sister”. Like senpai, you’ll also often hear お兄ちゃん ( oniichan) and お姉ちゃん ( oneechan). So in a school drama, a senpai is someone in the grade above the speaker.īut senpai can also mean anyone who’s older than you, has higher status than you (like in the workplace), or whom you look up to. せんぱい ( senpai, kanji: 先輩) means “upperclassman”. Some of these are used often in everyday life (albeit, less dramatically), while others are much more common in anime than everyday speech. Now let’s dive into some helpful anime phrases every otaku should know. What?!”) in Japanese became a huge meme thanks to this old school anime, Hokuto no Ken It’s usually used like “Huh?” or “Ehhhhh?” rather than a serious question.īut even if you don’t watch anime, you’ve probably seen the nani Japanese meme before.

You’ve definitely heard nani in Japanese anime, where the character shockingly and dramatically states, “ Nani?!” Nani’s meaning in Japanese is “what”, and it’s one of the most common Japanese question words.

Let’s start with the absolute most heard and most meme’d: What Does Nani Mean in Japanese?
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