"こんにちは。"
Translation:Good day.
80 Comments
I learned from my teacher in Japanese that "konnichiwa" is used after 10 am while "konbanwa" is used after it gets dark.
Whats the difference between õ and the o with a line on top (not on my keyboard lol)
1940
ō is o with a macron over it, indicating it should be pronounced for extra time. This is how we sometimes transcribe Japanese long vowels instead of explicitly showing the diphthong.
õ is o with a tilde over it. In Spanish, the tilde is written over consonants to show they have been palatalized. In Portuguese, it is written over vowels to show they have been nasalized. It has nothing to do with transcribing Japanese, hence Jop-V's comment that heysofia meant ō instead of õ.
It's just that sometimes, people who writes with a keyboard use "õ" because it's easier than trying to write "ō". I think the "real" way writing in romaji is with a "ō"
- 1940
No.
どう いたしまして is something you say as a response to ありがとう. That is, it is roughly "you're welcome" (or "it was nothing" or "my pleasure" as a response to "thank you").
ようこそ is "welcome" as in "Nice to see you!"
- 1940
It has nothing to do with "chi". "ha" is pronounced "wa" when it is being used as a grammatical particle that marks the subject of the sentence.
"Ha" is pronounced "wa" in "konnichiha" due to old Japanese language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography) . It is pronounced "wa" only in "konnichiha" so don't say "wa" in other words unless you are told to do so :)
Wrong, ha is always pronounced wa when it marks the subject of conversation. But it IS due to old Japanese, yes.
That's because the topic is "This Evening" or こんばん. Same goes for こんにさは
Kon = this. Nichi = daytime. Ha (as wa) = subject of conversation. So you cannot use it at night, and you're basically initiating conversation by saying "so, about today..." The listener can then finish the sentence by saying something like "...the weather is nice"
Actually, 今日は is short for 今日はご機嫌いかがですか, which means "How are you today?" So it does not always initiate a conversation nor does the sentence need to be finished, as it is already short for one.
Well, I've learned some kanji so far, so I read "kon nichi ha go bla-bla-bla ikagadeska" Kanji are so difficult... I do learn kanji contemporaneously duo's lessons.. but still.. so difficult..
おやすみなさい means literally お(show honor like in おさけ) 休み (rest, break) なさい (verb meaning do)
So it literally means to tell someone to do rest. In english we would say "Good night!" So its more of a coversation ender than opener
It's a matter of the semantic, idiomatic hypernym - hyponym maps of the languages having only partial coverage of eachother.
Another instance of this sort of discrepancy in hypernym - hyponym mapping between Japanese and English can be seen with place deixis. English only has A) 'this'/'these' (proximal: describing a referent or referents near the speaker) and B) 'that'/'those' (medial/distal (ambiguous): describing a referent or referents anywhere else) whereas Japanes has これ/これら as co-hyponyms to A (so, again, proximal: near or with the speaker) but no co-hyponyms to B, only the hyponyms to (/things more specific than) B (that imply B) それ/それら (medial only: describing a referent or referents that is/are nearer the speaker's colocutor than the speaker and where neither party is closer to one another than the referent is to either) and あれ/あれら (distal only: describing a referent or referents farther from both the speaker and their colocutor or colocutors than the farthest of them are from one another). Both それ and あれ could be chalked up to the hypernym 'that' in translation to English just like the various time specific greetings could be generalized to an English equivalent of their semantic hypernym like "hello". And conversely, a translation of someone saying "hello" might actually be a translation of one of the semantic hyponyms of the original utterance because something at the same level of detail doesn't exist or isn't commonly used in the target language.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponymy_and_hypernymy#Usage
It is a general way to say 'Hello' in day time i think. While you say こんばんは in evening.
It is a generic way to say "Hello" as well if you are not being time specific. But it's proper meaning is "Good Afternoon" :)
Eventually youll learn that "Nichi" neans day and "ban" means evening. So one is Good day and the other is good evening. (Good night is completely different)
Why does it have a は (ha) at the end instead of a わ (wa) when you pronounce "KonnichiWA"?
It has some historical reasons, but this is one of the exceptions when the は is pronounced 'wa'
- 1940
It's a historical quirk. When it's part of a word, は is pronounced "ha" and わ is pronounced "wa". But as a grammar particle, は is pronounced "wa".
Would there be a difference between writing ko-n-ni-chi-ha and ko-(chiisai-tsu)-ni-chi-ha? (Sorry, no Japanese keyboard)
I've never seen this done, especially for the very reason that we conveniently have a free-standing N character. But that's not to say it's never been done. You wouldn't normally see a small tsu before a character from the H-row either, nor would you typically see it after a drawn-out vowel, but you might see both at the same time in weird dialogue, like if a super villain were having a good laugh, it might be written as ハーッハハハー。
- 1940
こん is literally "this"
にち is literally "day"
は is a grammar particle.
Literal "afternoon" is ごご.
In a question, the only answer was Hi and this is wrong because in Japanese there is no "hi" it all depends on the time of the day!!
- 1940
But there is "hi" in English, and translation is also about usage, not just strict word-for-word substitution.
- 1940
It's all about usage. When you think about it, any greeting can also be taken as "hi/hello".
- 1940
They mean the same thing in the same way that "buh-bye" and "bye" mean the same thing. But one is a slightly less formal register than the other, meaning they would not usually be used in the same contexts.
The best translation would be "hello" or "good afternoon".
こんばんは is "Good evening", not "Hi". こんいちは is "Good afternoon". おはようございます is "Good morning".
- 1940
Phrases and expressions don't translate one-to-one between languages, especially when the two languages are not the least bit related to each other the way English and Japanese are. Translation is about equivalent usage.
Literally, こんにちは is:
こん literally "this"
にち literally "day"
は grammar particle [topic marker]
The best literal translation is "As for this day..." But that's not how English speakers greet each other. So we look at how Japanese speakers use the phrase, and the equivalent usage in English can be "hello" or "good day" or "good afternoon".
Hi, it keeps giving me error when I write Good day, Hello and in the correct answer that is what is suggesting Good Day Hello I do not understand why. I reported it as an error, saying that my answer should be accepted. Any comment? I also think Good morning should be accepted as translation....or not?
When I put: 'Good Evening' it took it as an answer. All the way to crown 4, now when I put 'Good Evening' as an answer it marks it wrong. Saying it means: Good day, Hello.
Might be because I switched devices but it's weird.
Konnichiwa isn't for any situation and time period... It's for use after 11a.m....
- 54
Just casually here practicing at level 19 and still get the question on how to say hello......
- 1940
No.
[You should be able to read the text without signing up, but in case the site gives you trouble, here is what it says:]
What Does GOZAIMASU Mean?
Learn what 'gozaimasu' means and why it makes phrases more polite
Lesson Transcript
Hi everybody! Hiroko here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher where I’ll answer some of your most common Japanese questions.
The question for this lesson is…
What does GOZAIMASU mean and why does it make phrases more polite?
When you say “Good morning” in Japanese, you can say “Ohayo” casually or “Ohayo Gozaimasu” to be polite. However, you cannot say ‘Kon’nichiwa gozaimasu’ or ‘Konbanwa gozaimasu’ as more polite phrases of ‘Kon’nichiwa’ or ‘Konbanwa.’
So what’s going on with this?
When you say “Good morning” politely, you say ‘Ohayo gozaimasu.’ It’s just the casual “Good morning,” ‘Ohayo’ with ‘gozaimasu’ at the end.
The word ‘gozaimasu’ is a very polite expression and can roughly be translated as “am,” “is,” or “are” in English.
The phrase “ohayo” comes from an adjective, “hayai” meaning “early” and it literally means “it’s early.” So, “ohayo” can take the polite expression “gozaimasu” after that to say it politely.
However, other greeting phrases, such as ‘Kon’nichiwa’ meaning “Hello,” and ‘Konbanwa’ meaning “Good evening.”‘ cannot take ‘gozaimasu.’ You don’t say ‘Kon’nichiwa gozaimasu’ or ‘Konbanwa gozaimasu.'
It’s because the phrases “kon’nichiwa” and “Konbanwa” have different origins from ‘Ohayo (gozaimasu)’. ‘Kon’nichiwa’ means “today (is)…” and came from the sentence, ‘Kon’nichi wa genki desu ka.’ meaning “How are you today?” Whereas Konbanwa’ means “this evening (is)...” and came from ‘Konban wa genki desu ka.’ meaning “How are you this evening?” So, the latter part, ‘genki desu ka,’ is dropped to make “Kon’nichiwa” and “Konbanwa”. They don’t come from adjectives like how Ohayo comes from “hayai” so these two greetings cannot take ‘gozaimasu’ after them.
Just remember that you can choose either the casual or polite version when you say “Good morning” but you don’t have to worry about the politeness when you say “Hello” and “Good evening” in Japanese.
