132 Comments
1181
The は here is indeed the grammatical particle, and is thus pronounced /wa/. This is because this "word" is essentially a shortened phrase. See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BB%8A%E6%97%A5%E3%81%AF
It is not normally written with kanji (今日は) as that would likely be interpreted as きょうは, or "today…" Even if context would probably leave it unambiguous, the form of the word can matter.
- 140
I think it's very nice, though, that in Japanese "good day" is written the same as "today". Kind of implies that every day is good. Same thing with 明日 「あした」 "tomorrow", that is written as "bright day". I really like how positive is this language. :-)
What about bonjour? In french it means good day in direct translation too
- 1943
"Bonjour" literally breaks down into "good day", yes, but it is used as "hello".
"こんにち は" literally breaks down into "as for this day..."
こん = this
にち = day
は = topic particle
Yeah but the long form of "Bonjour" (that nobody says nowadays), is "Je vous souhaite le bon jour" (I wish you a good day)
こんにちは is short for "今日（こんにち）はご機嫌（きげん）いかがですか" or "今日はお天気（てんき）がいいですね" How are you today? or Good weather today.
I was a Japanese tutor in college hired by my Japanese professor and we always wrote Konnichiwa 今日は。Kyou wa was written the same way. Context is imperative in reading Japanese kanji.
- 1943
は used in this context is a grammar particle. It is not interchangeable with わ, which is not a grammar particle.
The particle は being pronounced "wa" is a historical quirk. It is pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word.
I think you're right. This word for me though is coming as "good afternoon" though so I guess there is a difference?
yes you are right. the Kon just refers to the present day or "today"
konnichi wa "this day" but used as a greeting "good afternoon or good day"
As far as I know, こんばんは is "good evening," こんにちは is "good afternoon," and おはいよ is "good morning." Then theres also おやすみなさい which is "good night," but I think thats really only for if the person you're talking to is going to sleep not for just saying it like saying goodbye at the end of the day, that should be こんばんは。At least thats what I was led to believe, please correct me if i'm wrong.
Mostly right.
Good morning is おはよう
Good night おやすみなさい and can be a goodbye if it is late in the evening e.g. after 9pm.
こんばんは cannot be a goodbye. It is a hello when you see people in the evening.
For what I saw in other sites, konbanwa is good evening but where there is no sun outside
今晩は（こんばんは）means good evening and is a greeting just like English and is used during the same time period.
- 1943
こんばんは, not こんばんわ. It breaks down literally as
こん this
ばん evening
は [topic marker]
or "As for this evening..."
I read this somewhere but "wa" when used as a particle is written as "ha" (or is it "ha" used as a particle and read as "wa" i'm not sure)
If we literally transalte,こんにちは would be something like: " as for this day ... " the rest is implicit since you are expecting the person you said it to, to tell you how their day is going. こん= this にち=day. は=subject particle
What do people mean when they say it is used as "the particle" is that the same as a suffix in English or literally just as the end of the word. So if i see 'ha' at the end of a word then I should pronounce it as 'wa'
- 1943
Japanese has grammatical particles that English just does not have. They are used to indicate what role the previous phrase plays in the sentence. https://nihongoichiban.com/home/japanese-grammar-particles/ They are not word suffixes and should be written separately.
It's a bit early at this point in this lesson sequence to be worried about that because at this point we're just learning the hiragana and getting introduced to some words and phrases. (Although I'm sure your comment indicates a certain amount of outside study and prior study apart from this course.) As for understanding the particles, (and I see you posted this 5 months ago so you may be there already), but for anyone else reading who would post this same comment, I think the particles may get easier if you just start using the phrases that use them - you will learn them as part of a phrase or expression rather than as a word that is translatable to English - in this way you will soon begin to gradually and easily pick up on an innate (or at least rhythmic) understanding of the particles and when to use them. Heck, you might even get to a point where you could define or explain it to someone - I'm certainly not there yet for many particles! One book I had for learning Japanese said the only way to really get into the ability to use Japanese sentence structure is to start by memorizing and repeating sample sentences over and over and then begin to substitute words into the sample sentences. So you would learn to say "I am a red bird." And when you learned other words you could plug them in - "I am a blue bird. I am a blue box. You are a red bird. A cardinal is a red bird." Etc...
For anyone just now wondering what the particles and the meanings are (and I welcome corrections/additions/clarifications since I am working off of memory) - wa = subject Watashi wa shiawase desu. ("I, the subject, happy am.") no = possession (" 's") Onna no neko ("the woman's cat") ka = question mark Watashi wa shaiwase desu ka. (I am happy? Am I happy?" yo = exclamation mark Watashi wa shiawase desu yo. (I am happy!) ni = "to, at, by, in" Gakko ni iku. ((I am) school to (to school) going.)
By the way, prepositions are often not clearly translatable - even within a language sometimes. (Consider how usually Americans say "different from" where as Brits commonly say "different to" and these phrases mean the same thing. So don't get hung up on prepositions, just memorize them and accept that you might always get them mixed up, as I do with French prepositions all the time!
That will get you started. Wikipedia's article on "Japanese particles" reveals there are lots of particles and translations of those particles so there's lots of time to learn them all.
- 1943
By the way, prepositions are often not clearly translatable
If there is one eternal linguistic truth, it is that prepositions NEVER map cleanly between languages. Not in translation, not in usage. And even between dialects of one language, as you point out, there is variation.
if youre writing (not pronouncing) it in english letters, would you write it like that as well? or as konnichiha?
- 80
Konnichiwa. According to the book I have it was once pronounced konnichiha. The pronunciation changed but not the writing.
- 1943
こんにちは is literally "As for this day...":
この = this
にち = day
は = topic particle
は is always pronounced "wa" when it is the topic particle. As you said, it used to be "ha" consistently.
There have been other sound changes as well, which is why we still spell it Nippon in English even though in Japanese it's now nihon.
- 1943
Pretty much. Think of it as a greeting you only use in the afternoon. They say "konnichi wa", we say "hello" or "good afternoon". They say "konban wa", we say "hello" or "good evening". They say "ohaiou", we say "hello" or "good morning".
No, Japanese actually doesn't have a word for simply 'hello' It always depends on the time of day (morning, day, afternoon, evening, etc.) Konnichiwa means good afternoon.
So what do you say at midday? Or do you just transition from ohayou to konnichiwa?
You transition from ohayou to konnichi wa. Children can get away with using konnichi wa all day long, but where that divide is between "proper morning" and "proper afternoon" is varies, because I've heard several native Tokyo residents say "konnichi wa" at 11:30.
Why is the translation, "Good afternoon" ? I've always understood こんにちは to be hello. Is it because you use おはよございます only in the morning? Thanks
- 1943
"kon nichi wa" is literally "As for this day..." But it's used as a greeting equivalent to "hello".
But yes, just as we have "good morning" and "good afternoon" in English which we tend to restrict to their respective times of day, Japanese has おはよう for the morning and こんにちは for past that. "Good evening" is "kon ban wa", literally, "As for this evening..."
While は is most of the time pronounced ha, there are exceptions like this one when it's pronounced wa. は is added at the end of a word to mark it as the topic and in these cases it's pronounced wa. As for konnichiwa, I believe it used to be a phrase where は was used in this manner, later it became a single word, but kept it's spelling and pronunciation. I hope this was helpful.
I didn't realize it was "konichiha" and not "konichiwa". Is there a reason why 'ha' sounds like 'wa' in the voiced example?
This is shorthand from a longer expression which eventually became its own word, and it keeps the "wa" sound in は because it sounds like that when it's used as a particle, like in the original sentence
I got it wrong because I didnt capatalize the G in good morning i did everything right i put " Hello, good afternoon." and it said it was wrong.
- 1943
The capitalization had nothing to do with it. You were trying to translate one greeting into two different greetings at the same time. So I wouldn't say you did everything right.
It is either hello or good afternoon. You cannot say both hello and good afternoon. It is not good morning either.
- 1943
When it's just another syllable in a word, は is pronounced "ha" and わ is pronounced "wa".
But when it's used as a grammar particle ("konnichi wa" literally means "as for this day...") は is pronounced "wa".
- 1943
When it's just another syllable in a word, は is pronounced "ha" and わ is pronounced "wa".
But when it's used as a grammar particle ("konnichi wa" literally means "as for this day...") は is pronounced "wa".
は and わ are not interchangeable.
This has been covered on this page before.
I'm confused. "Hello" is definitely the main definition of こんにちは, but shouldn't "Good evening" have also been an acceptable answer?
- 1943
No, that would be こんばんは.
にち is "day". こんにちは is literally "As for this day..."
As this word also means good afternoon would it be abnormal to say it in the morning or at night time ?
- 1943
It literally means "As for this day..."
At night, you would say こんばんは, literally "As for this evening..."
In the morning, you could say こんいちは or おはいよう.
- 1943
Duolingo is based in the USA and focuses on Standard American English. The course contributors do occasionally take suggestions for alternate translations, but of course they cannot be expected to include or even be aware of every single variation from all over the world.
- 1943
It can be used that way, but greetings are just niceties and rarely translate literally across unrelated languages.
To remember Ko I think of Koko from fosters home for imaginary friends. It looks open mouth beakish.
So many sites have been telling me こんにちは means 'Good Evening' and then other sites are telling me it means hello.
I am confusion
- 1943
Translation is more about context and usage than it is about what it literally breaks down as.
こんにちは literally breaks down as
こん = this
にち = day
は = (topic marker)
or "As for this day..." but the best colloquial translation is "good day", "good afternoon", or "hello".
"Good evening" is こんばんは, or
こん = this
ばん = evening
は = (topic marker)
or "As for this evening..." but the best colloquial translation is "good evening" or "hello".
Im still a bit confused, with how "は" works. So if at the end of a word its pronounced "Wa" but at the beginning its "Ha"?
- 1943
は is a stand-alone grammar particle that marks the discursive topic of the sentence. Due to a historical quirk, it is pronounced "wa" in this context. It is not a matter of "comes at the end of a word" vs "comes at the beginning of a word", but rather a matter of "grammar particle" vs "part of a word".
Other comments on this page also discuss this.
- 1943
Yes. Please read the other comments on this page for more details.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22946203
- 1943
Essentially, a particle is a tiny bit of grammar that really isn't a full-fledged word by itself, but gets tacked onto the end of phrases to let you know what's going on.
Usually, は is pronounced "ha", but when it functions as the topic particle it's pronounced "wa".
Marking something as the topic is not the same as marking it as the subject. Think of the topic marker as roughly the equivalent of "As for..." Ending a sentence with カ makes it a question.
https://nihongoichiban.com/home/japanese-grammar-particles/
As a greeting, こんにちは literally means "today" (or super-literally, "As for today...").
There are several ways of greeting in Japanese, much like any other language. You can mention the weather, you can praise the person's industriousness if they're obviously working on something, or you can give them a time-of-day appropriate phrase just like English "Good Morning".
why "good morning" is wrong? "good day" is actually used? english is not my first language, so I really don't know.
Before I write this down, if I wrote the pronunciation character by character, would it be konnichiha? I always heard it said like konichiwa so I'm just wondering, how would I write the pronunciation in English letters?
- 1943
English transliterates based on how it sounds. We're not beholden to the quirks of Japanese orthography. So konichiwa. You just need to know that the actual Japanese is こんにちは, which breaks down as
こん = this
にち = day
は = topic marker
in the JP - German books i use its Guten Tag ( in german theres no good afternoon tho )
i also never heasrd someone say good afternoon
- 1943
Good afternoon isn't that common in ordinary informal conversations, but if you were to call a business, the person on the other end is likely to answer the phone with some variation on "Good afternoon, you've reached [name], how can I help you?"
は >> This is so confusing, why does it sound like "wa" and "ha" when there's already one for "wa"?
So if I'm just pronouncing it alone do I always say "wa" and then change to "ha" according to the word?
- 1943
It's a historical quirk of Hiragana.
When it's part of a word, は is pronounced "ha".
When it's the grammar particle that marks the topic of the sentence, は is pronounced "wa".
- 1943
It is a greeting used the same way we use "hello" in English.
But if you want to break it down literally (which has already been done multiple times on this page):
こん = this
にち = day
は = topic particle
It does not specify "afternoon".
It serves no purpose posting this comment here. There is nobody here who can help you. Either you post exactly what you have typed in your answer so that people here can take a look, or you press the flag button to report after you answer the question if you think your answer is absolutely correct.
- 1943
That is how it is pronounced, but that is not how it is spelled.
Please read the other comments on this page.
- 1943
In this case, it's because the whole thing is two words and a grammar particle:
こんにちは
こん = this
にち = day
は = topic marker
In Japanese, the length of a sound is important. Regular vs short vs long can make a difference in meaning between two words.
Another example of this is the pair of words
ほし = star
ほしい = want
Duplicate question. Please read the comments in this page because almost half of them are talking about this.
