These are the 100 most useful Japanese words from our 1000-word beginner course - the vocabulary you will hear and use most often. Learn them first and you will understand a surprising amount of everyday Japanese.
| # | Word | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the apple | りんご |
| 2 | the book | 本 |
| 3 | the cat | 猫 |
| 4 | the dog | 犬 |
| 5 | the car | 車 |
| 6 | the house | 家 |
| 7 | the chair | 椅子 |
| 8 | the table | テーブル |
| 9 | the window | 窓 |
| 10 | the door | ドア |
| 11 | the pencil | 鉛筆 |
| 12 | the paper | 紙 |
| 13 | the school | 学校 |
| 14 | the teacher | 先生 |
| 15 | the student | 学生 |
| 16 | the boy | 男の子 |
| 17 | the girl | 女の子 |
| 18 | the adult | 大人 |
| 19 | the friend | 友達 |
| 20 | the tree | 木 |
| 21 | the flower | 花 |
| 22 | the river | 川 |
| 23 | the mountain | 山 |
| 24 | the beach | ビーチ |
| 25 | the sun | 太陽 |
| 26 | the moon | 月 |
| 27 | the star | 星 |
| 28 | the cloud | 雲 |
| 29 | the rain | 雨 |
| 30 | the snow | 雪 |
| 31 | the wind | 風 |
| 32 | the fire | 火 |
| 33 | the water | 水 |
| 34 | the food | 食べ物 |
| 35 | the drink | 飲み物 |
| 36 | the cup | カップ |
| 37 | the bottle | ボトル |
| 38 | the plate | 皿 |
| 39 | the spoon | スプーン |
| 40 | the fork | フォーク |
| 41 | the knife | ナイフ |
| 42 | the breakfast | 朝食 |
| 43 | the lunch | 昼食 |
| 44 | the dinner | 夕食 |
| 45 | the fruit | 果物 |
| 46 | the vegetable | 野菜 |
| 47 | the bread | パン |
| 48 | the butter | バター |
| 49 | the cheese | チーズ |
| 50 | the milk | 牛乳 |
| 51 | the coffee | コーヒー |
| 52 | the tea | お茶 |
| 53 | the juice | ジュース |
| 54 | the soda | ソーダ |
| 55 | the chocolate | チョコレート |
| 56 | the candy | キャンディ |
| 57 | the cookie | クッキー |
| 58 | the cake | ケーキ |
| 59 | the rice | 米 |
| 60 | the pasta | パスタ |
| 61 | the fish | 魚 |
| 62 | the chicken | 鶏肉 |
| 63 | the beef | 牛肉 |
| 64 | the egg | 卵 |
| 65 | the soup | スープ |
| 66 | the salad | サラダ |
| 67 | the sandwich | サンドイッチ |
| 68 | the pizza | ピザ |
| 69 | the ice cream | アイスクリーム |
| 70 | the cereal | シリアル |
| 71 | the honey | はちみつ |
| 72 | the sugar | 砂糖 |
| 73 | the salt | 塩 |
| 74 | the pepper | コショウ |
| 75 | the tomato | トマト |
| 76 | the potato | ジャガイモ |
| 77 | the onion | タマネギ |
| 78 | the carrot | ニンジン |
| 79 | the lettuce | レタス |
| 80 | the cucumber | キュウリ |
| 81 | the banana | バナナ |
| 82 | the orange | オレンジ |
| 83 | the grapefruit | グレープフルーツ |
| 84 | the strawberry | イチゴ |
| 85 | the grape | ブドウ |
| 86 | the lemon | レモン |
| 87 | the lime | ライム |
| 88 | the cherry | サクランボ |
| 89 | the watermelon | スイカ |
| 90 | the pineapple | パイナップル |
| 91 | the mango | マンゴー |
| 92 | the kiwi | キウイ |
| 93 | the peach | モモ |
| 94 | the pear | 洋梨 |
| 95 | the plum | プラム |
| 96 | the berry | ベリー |
| 97 | the melon | メロン |
| 98 | the phone | 電話 |
| 99 | the computer | コンピューター |
| 100 | the television | テレビ |
The 100 most frequent words cover about half of everyday spoken language. With the full 1000-word core vocabulary you understand around 85% of typical conversations in Japanese - enough to follow along and make yourself understood.
They are the most frequently used words of the language, selected by word frequency. Every one of them will appear again and again in real sentences, so each learned word immediately pays off.
Listen and repeat: every word in the 1000 Words course comes with native-speaker audio and an example sentence. Combined with spaced repetition in the free vocabulary trainer, most learners master the first 100 words within one to two weeks.