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hello

Japanese translation: こんにちは (kon-nichi-wa)


GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:hello
Japanese translation:こんにちは (kon-nichi-wa)
Entered by: Mike Sekine
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16:10 Jan 25, 2002Login or register (free) for more options.
English to Japanese translations [Non-PRO]
unspecified
English term or phrase: hello
school project
john bob
こんにちは (kon-nichi-wa)
Explanation:
pretty much the standard greeting.
Selected response from:

Mike Sekine
Japan
Local time: 06:05
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3こんにちは (kon-nichi-wa)Mike Sekine
4 +2moshi moshi, konichiwa, konbaha, ohayou gozaimasu
Timothy Takemoto


  

Answers

24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
こんにちは (kon-nichi-wa)


Explanation:
pretty much the standard greeting.

Mike Sekine
Japan
Local time: 06:05
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in pair: 76
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  fk471
3 hrs

agree  Emi White
8 hrs

agree  jratna2
12 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)


10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
moshi moshi, konichiwa, konbaha, ohayou gozaimasu


Explanation:
moshi moshi is for the telephone. Literally it means "I say, I say," or perhaps "I utter, I utter" since it uses the humble word for "say." And the subject "I" is abbreviated. There is no need to use the subject in Japanese.
"Konichi wa" means "today" or perhaps "It's today" and it is the partner of "konban wa" meaning "tonight" or "it"s tonight." These are rather like "good day" and "good evening."

In the morning people say "Ohayou gozaimasu" which means "It's early," or "I beg to inform you that it is early," since again, it is using a humble adjective and verb form. ("Ohayou" means "early", "gozaimasu" means "to be"). Sometimes, in work environments where people meet each other for the first time in the evening, such as the entertainment industry, peope will say "ohayou gozaimasu" when the first meet even if it is 5pm.

Alternatively, to a friend one might say "yaa" which is an exclamation like "Hi."

Or when someone wants attract someones attention to the fact that they are about to speak they might say "anou..." which literally means "that...." or "er..umm..."

Also most people understand and some Japanese even say "Harou" being the Japanese way of pronouncing "Hello."


So there is no direct equivalent of hello. What you say as a first greeting depends on the time of day and where you are. In my humble opinion.




    Reference: http://www.nifty.ne.jp/forum/fshosai/koujimo0001.html
Timothy Takemoto
Japan
Local time: 06:05
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 121

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  jratna2: This question has been answered tens of times. Please see those answers in the glossary.
1 hr
  -> Thank you. I agree. But I am greedy.

agree  mimichan: It's good to be greedy especially if you are doing something that helps others!
3 hrs
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