The 100 Most Common Japanese Words

These are the 100 most common Japanese words, ranked by how often they appear in real Japanese text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	の	noh	of
2	に	nee	to
3	は	wah	(topic particle)
4	を	oh	(object marker)
5	が	gah	(subject particle)
6	と	toh	and
7	も	moh	also
8	で	deh	at
9	から	kah-rah	from
10	か	kah	(question particle)
11	ない	nahy	not (negation)
12	だ	dah	be (copula)
13	する	soo-roo	do
14	いる	ee-roo	exist, be there (people, animals)
15	ある	ah-roo	exist, be there (things)
16	なる	nah-roo	become
17	言う	yoo	say
18	思う	oh-moh-oo	think
19	見る	mee-roo	see
20	来る	koo-roo	come
21	行く	ee-koo	go
22	分かる	wah-kah-roo	understand
23	できる	deh-kee-roo	can
24	人	hee-toh	people
25	こと	koh-toh	thing (matter, fact)
26	これ	koh-reh	this
27	それ	soh-reh	it
28	何	nah-nee	what
29	私	wah-tah-shee	I
30	あなた	ah-nah-tah	you (formal)
31	時	toh-kee	time
32	今	ee-mah	now
33	日	hee	day
34	中	nah-kah	in
35	前	mah-eh	before
36	上	oo-eh	top
37	いい	ee	good
38	そう	soh	so
39	ため	tah-meh	for
40	もの	moh-noh	thing (object)
41	年	toh-shee	year
42	話す	hah-nah-soo	talk
43	聞く	kee-koo	hear
44	出る	deh-roo	leave
45	持つ	moh-tsoo	have
46	使う	tsoo-kah-oo	use
47	みんな	meen-nah	everyone
48	とても	toh-teh-moh	very
49	一つ	hee-toh-tsoo	one
50	家	ee-eh	house
51	この	koh-noh	this (before a noun)
52	その	soh-noh	that (before a noun)
53	ね	neh	(sentence-final agreement particle)
54	よ	yoh	(sentence-final emphasis particle)
55	まで	mah-deh	until
56	より	yoh-ree	than
57	など	nah-doh	and so on
58	でも	deh-moh	but
59	だから	dah-kah-rah	so (therefore)
60	もう	moh	already
61	まだ	mah-dah	still (yet)
62	また	mah-tah	again
63	自分	jee-boon	self
64	彼	kah-reh	he
65	彼女	kah-noh-joh	she
66	誰	dah-reh	who
67	どこ	doh-koh	where
68	いつ	ee-tsoo	when
69	どう	doh	how
70	なぜ	nah-zeh	why
71	知る	shee-roo	know (come to know)
72	作る	tsoo-koo-roo	make
73	考える	kahn-gah-eh-roo	think (consider)
74	教える	oh-shee-eh-roo	tell (teach)
75	会う	ah-oo	meet
76	待つ	mah-tsoo	wait
77	買う	kah-oo	buy
78	食べる	tah-beh-roo	eat
79	飲む	noh-moo	drink
80	読む	yoh-moo	read
81	書く	kah-koo	write
82	入る	hah-ee-roo	enter
83	帰る	kah-eh-roo	return (go home)
84	好き	soo-kee	liked (favorite)
85	大きい	oh-kee	big
86	小さい	chee-sahy	small
87	新しい	ah-tah-rah-shee	new
88	多い	oh-ee	many
89	高い	tah-kahy	high (expensive)
90	長い	nah-gahy	long
91	ところ	toh-koh-roh	place
92	仕事	shee-goh-toh	work (job)
93	学校	gahk-koh	school
94	友達	toh-moh-dah-chee	friend
95	子供	koh-doh-moh	child
96	水	mee-zoo	water
97	お金	oh-kah-neh	money
98	名前	nah-mah-eh	name
99	言葉	koh-toh-bah	word (language)
100	一緒	ees-shoh	together

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Ranked by lemma frequency in published Japanese corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

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Frequently asked questions about Japanese words

How many Japanese words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Japanese?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Japanese word list come from?

From published Japanese word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.