Japanese is a really interesting language to learn, and whether you're going there to live or just to visit, it's always helpful to know how to say a few words!

Japanese is a phonetic language, where every consonant is paired with a vowel - except for "n" which can be on its own (there is, however, na, ni, nu, ne, and no). The general grammatical order of sentences in Japanese is subject - object - verb. Nouns do not have plural forms, and there is no gender for words. Japanese have different forms to represent various levels of respect:

1. 丁寧語 (Teineigo) Polite Language - verbs end in ~masu or desu. Used by most TV presenters, and is usually what people learn Japanese study first.

2. 尊敬語 (Sonkeigo) Respectful Language - used when talking about customers or people who are of higher standing than you.  

3. 謙譲語 (Kenjogo) Humble Language - used when you are describing your actions to someone in a group, generally of higher standing. For example, a shop assistant to a customer.

4. Plain Language - this is used between family and friends.

Let's look at an example using the verb 食べる (taberu - to eat).

1. Polite Language - 食べます (tabemasu)
2. Sonkeigo - 召しあがります (meshi-agarimasu)
3. Kenjogo - 頂きます (itadakimasu)
4. Plain Language - 食べる (taberu)

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The Japanese writing system has three main parts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Both hiragana and katakana consist of 48 characters, two of which are not used in modern Japanese.

Hiragana is used for native words, some of which have no kanji counterpart, in verb conjugation, and for particles such as to and kara. You can often find furigana above difficult-to-read kanji. 

Katakana is for foreign words and names.

Kanji is derived from Chinese, and most characters have two or more ways to read them. There is the "onyomi", which is an approximation of the Chinese sound of the character, and the "kunyomi", which is based on the native Japanese word for the meaning of the character.

Here's an example using the character 車. The onyomi is "sha", and is used in combinations such as 電車 (densha; train). The kunyomi is 車 (kuruma) which is the Japanese word for car.

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As we're all fans of Sailor Moon, I'm sure we all know at the very least a few Japanese words. So instead of going through the basics, I want to share a few of my favourite words and phrases.

めんどくさい (mendokusai) - used for when something is troublesome or annoying to do. For example, sometimes putting your clean clothes away is "mendokusai".

もったいない (mottainai) - wasteful. Throwing away that extra food instead of saving it as leftovers is "mottainai".

懐かしい (natsukashii) - nostalgic, something that reminds you of the "good old days"

木漏れ日 (komorebi) - sunlight filtering through the trees. Not overly useful, but a beautiful word nonetheless.

狂犬病 (kyoukenbyou) - rabies. I know it's an odd one to consider a favourite, but I love how the individual characters mean "crazy" "dog" "disease".

おしっこ (oshikko) - to go pee. If you're planning on teaching children in Japan this is one you will hear repeatedly.

珍しい (mezurashii) - rare or unique

頑張る (ganbaru) - to try your best, or said as "ganbatte" to encourage someone to do their best

恥ずかしい (hazukashii) - another one you hear a lot, it means shy or embarrassed

わんちゃん (wanchan) - although the Japanese word for dog is "inu", "wanchan" is a cute way to refer to a dog. "Wan" is from "wanwan", the sound a dog makes when it barks.

お疲れ様です (otsukaresama desu) - said at the end of the work day to thank co-workers for their effort throughout the day.

ただいま (tadaima) - I'm home!

One super useful phrase that anyone going to Japan must know is よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegai shimasu). It's pretty hard to translate, but you say it a lot. It can mean any of the following things: “Be Kind to me”, “I am in your debt”, “I’m counting on you”, “Please help me”, “Please take care of me” and “Nice to meet you”. The longer you spend interacting in Japanese, the easier it becomes to use and understand, but if you learn anything from this post, I hope that it's "yoroshiku".

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It's game time! For languages to stay alive, they have to adapt and grow. One way they grow is by accepting foreign words into their vocabulary - and Japanese is no exception.

Under the spoiler is a list of Japanese loan words. Can you figure out what they mean without looking them up? Once the first list is complete, I'll post another.

Round One

What do you think these words mean?:

Post your guesses as a reply! The translations will be added as people get them correct.

1. milk
2.Computer/laptop
3. Department store
4. Coffee
5.car?
6.cat?
7.diet
8.era?
9.Event
10. allergy
11. Bat/Baseball bat?
12. Restaurant
13.taco?
14. Vitamin
15.Banjo?
16. Adorable?
17. Beard
18.no idea. I spent the longest time on this one, I give up.
19. Blueprint?
20.Bargain
21. Bagel
22. Fry, like french fry?
23. Map?
24. Desk-top (Computer)
25. rest/rest stop?

Nice job! You got eleven of them on the first try! I've edited the post so the answers that were correct are added.

You were really close with number six, too!

As a little hint, numbers 18, 23, and 24 are actually two words in English, and 25 is a shortened form the English word.

11. アルバイト (arubaito) - airport?
13. タクシー (takushii) - taxi
16. アイドル (aidoru) - idol
17. ビル (biru) - beer?
18. ワイシャツ (waishatsu) - I want to say WhatsApp but that's probably way off lol
19. ボールペン (boorupen) - ballpoint
23. マイペース (maipeesu) - myspace??

You got taxi and idol! Ball point is pretty close, too (ballpoint pen), so I'll add that one to the translated list.

ビール (biiru) is beer, but that was a really good guess! ビル (biru) is a shorter form of the English word.

You were also super close with マイペース (maipeesu)!

Another hint, number 11 isn't based on an English word. It's based on German.

Department store, coffee, diet, event, allergy, restaurant, vitamin, idol, and fry are all correct! A few of the ones you missed were figured out by Cosmos-Hime and Sailor Mercury!

You're also really close with カット (katto)!

Here's what's left:

5. カバー (kabaa) -
6. カット (katto) -
8. エラー (eraa) -
11. アルバイト (arubaito) -
15. バージョン (baajon) -
17. ビル (biru) -
18. ワイシャツ (waishatsu) -
21. バーガー (baagaa) -
23. マイペース (maipeesu) -
24. ドクターストップ (dokutaasutoppu) -
25. イラスト (irasuto) -

8- Error?
21- Burguer?

Yes, and yes! (Like in English, バーガー (burger) is short for ハンバーガー (hamburger)).