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Happy birthday! It is one of the most important phrases for celebration. Everybody definitely says this phrase when they are invited to a birthday party. It is totally okay to say Happy Birthday in English to Japanese people because they are familiar with the phrase. But there are some Japanese happy birthday phrases that are good for certain situations and relationships. So let’s learn about them and have a great celebration with your friends! Casual Way of Saying Happy Birthday お誕生日おめでとう！ お誕生日おめでとう！/otanjoubi-omedetou!/ This is the most common phrase for celebrating with family and friends. お誕生日(otanjoubi) means a birthday. おめでとう(omedetou) is ...

Various Japanese fish counters You see many sea animals everywhere in Japan. They can be encountered at supermarkets, fish markets, travel advertisements, and TV shows. As you know, Japanese people love eating sea animals like fish, octopus, and squid because sea animals have been essential food for Japanese people since the old era. Japanese has so many ways to count fish that Japanese people sometimes make mistakes on which counter to use. We will introduce eight ways to count fish in this article. The first fish counter you should remember is 匹 (hiki). A basic Japanese counter for fish “匹 ...

Basic animal counters in Japanese How should I count this animal in Japanese...? You might feel it’s difficult to count animals in Japanese because the counter changes with the type of animal. However, there is a simple rule for counting animals in Japanese. We’ll share the basic counters: 匹(hiki), 頭(tou), 羽(wa) in this article. With these counters, you can learn how to count animals from mise to whales. Let’s begin! ～匹（hiki/piki/biki） The most common and useful Japanese counter for animals is the 匹(hiki) counter. It is used for small animals like dogs, cats, mice, sheep, fish, and insects. The animals ...

You need to learn lots of difficult grammar rules when you are studying Japanese. In particular, learning Japanese counters is hard because Japanese has hundreds of counters. But it’s not necessary for you to know all the counters. It is enough in daily life conversation to know the basic Japanese counters. We’ll share Japanese counters that native speakers usually use in daily conversation in this article. Learning points Basic Japanese counters (つ、個、枚、本、台) Right words for each Japanese counter Real usage The most common Japanese counters ~つ(tsu) つ(tsu) is one of the most common counters in Japanese. It is mostly used ...

Many Japanese learners get confused about how to use the に particle because Japanese has particles like で that are similar in meaning. Each Japanese particle has a meaning and concept. Understanding the concepts and meaning helps you correctly use Japanese particles. The に (ni) particle can be mostly used for describing a place, time, and action with some verbs. The concept of the に particle is "point" and "direction," which we will explain later in the article! Learning points The concept of the に (ni) particle Verbs that are used with the に (ni) particle  Example phrases and pronunciation ...

Particles like で, に, を, は are some of the most difficult grammar points for Japanese learners. Many Japanese learners in upper levels still get confused about how to use particles correctly. But you don't have to be too worried. The key to understand particles is to grasp the concept of each particle. Let’s understand the basic concept of で (de) and use it like a native Japanese. で (de) particle で (de) is one of the basic Japanese particles and is mainly used for four types of expressions. The basic concept of the で (de) particle is “a boundary.” ...

You might have had sweet memories in your childhood when you got penny candies from the pocket money that your parents gave you. That excitement when you go home with the candies you got would be unforgettable. Penny candy is called “dagashi (駄菓子(だがし))” in Japanese. Dagashi has a huge variety of types and has a long history. We will introduce Japanese penny candies in this article. Let’s take a look at sweet Japanese memories! What is dagashi 駄菓子(だがし)? Dagashi (駄菓子(だがし)) are cheap candies and snacks for children. They have many varieties and each one is packaged in a colorful wrapping ...

Some people say that Japanese people apologize more than people in other countries. You probably have heard your Japanese friends say sorry a lot. This is because the Japanese respect good manners and value courtesy in their culture. Since Japanese people have solidified good manners in their culture from long ago, there are many expressions that mean “I’m sorry” in Japanese now.  It’s going to be so much help for your good communication with Japanese people to learn some expressions of apologizing. We’ll share various phrases on how to apologize in this article, and we hope it will help you ...

When someone says "thanks" to you, you say “you’re welcome” or “no problem” in English. When you want to say “You’re welcome,” in Japanese, you say  “どういたしまして (douitashimashite).” This is a basic word to reply to a thank you, but you rarely hear this word in a real conversation. Contrary to popular belief, Japanese people don’t say douitashimashite very often. So, is it not good to say どういたしまして (douitashimashite) when you reply to a thank you? The answer is “yes, it's fine." But there is a rule of using どういたしまして(douitashimasite). We will share about the natural way to say どういたしまして ...

Thank you is "Arigatou (ありがとう)" in Japanese. Many people know "Arigatou (ありがとう)" but maybe there are few people who can say "thank you for (something)" Just saying "arigatou" is totally fine, but you can express your thanks more to someone if you can say what you're thankful for in Japanese. For Japanese beginners, saying your thanks specifically is the next level! We will share how to say "thank you for ..." in Japanese in this article. You'll learn the correct expressions for each situation. If you haven't read our previous post, check out Seven phrase to say thank you in ...