Greetings in Japanese: hello, goodbye and polite forms, with bowing

Morning, day and evening: choosing the right Japanese greeting

Most greetings in Japanese depend on the time of day. おはようございます ohayō gozaimasu is for the morning, こんにちは konnichiwa for the hours after it and こんばんは konbanwa once it is dark. English hello covers all three; Japanese makes the choice every time.

Ohayō is built on hayai, early. Wiktionary traces it to the honorific prefix お and 早く hayaku, early, which wore down over centuries from ohayaku to ohayau and finally ohayō. Adding ございます gozaimasu, a formal verb, makes the polite form used with anyone outside close friends and family.

The early in ohayō is about the meeting, not the clock. Wiktionary notes that the greeting belongs to the first meeting of the day and is heard in the afternoon or evening among people whose working day starts late, such as night-shift and entertainment workers.

Why konnichiwa ends in は, not わ

The last character of こんにちは is は, normally read ha, but the greeting ends in wa. Konnichiwa was once the start of a longer sentence: 今日は, today, followed by a question such as 今日はご機嫌いかがですか, how are you today? Wiktionary gives this analysis. The は there is the topic particle, and the topic particle is read wa.

When the rest of the sentence fell away, the particle and its spelling stayed. The official kana rules, 現代仮名遣い, published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, list こんにちは and こんばんは among the words in which the particle は is written は. こんばんは, good evening, has the same history: 今晩は, this evening.

Spellings that follow the sound, こんにちわ and こんばんわ, do turn up, but they are outside those rules; the standard forms keep は.

Meeting someone for the first time

A Japanese introduction has a fixed frame. It opens with はじめまして hajimemashite, which Wiktionary translates as pleased to meet you or how do you do, then the speaker's name with です desu, and it closes with よろしくお願いします yoroshiku onegai shimasu. A complete example: はじめまして、田中です。よろしくお願いします。

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu has no neat English match. Wiktionary lists four senses: asking someone to think well of the speaker and take care of them, entrusting a person or thing to someone, looking forward to working together, and a greeting close to pleased to meet you. It ends introductions, emails and requests alike.

Its kanji spelling, 初めまして, shows where the meaning comes from: 初 is the character for first, and the phrase belongs to the first meeting.

Goodbye in Japanese: why sayōnara is rarely the right word

さようなら sayōnara is the best-known Japanese goodbye abroad, yet its use is narrow. Wiktionary traces it to 左様ならば sayō naraba, if that is how it is, and notes strong connotations of finality: it is not said on leaving home unless the speaker does not plan to return soon.

Everyday partings are shorter. Wiktionary lists じゃあ jā, well then, またね mata ne, see you, and バイバイ baibai, borrowed from English bye-bye, as the casual options. Combined, じゃあ、またね is a complete casual goodbye.

おやすみなさい oyasuminasai, good night, belongs to the end of the day. Its kanji spelling お休みなさい contains 休み yasumi, rest. It is a parting phrase before sleep; meeting someone in the evening calls for konbanwa.

The bow that goes with a Japanese greeting

Spoken greetings in Japanese often come with a bow, お辞儀 ojigi. The English Wikipedia article on bowing in Japan defines it as lowering the head or upper body to express salutation, reverence, apology or gratitude.

The same article describes three business bows by angle. 会釈 eshaku, about 15 degrees, is a casual greeting between colleagues of equal status. 敬礼 keirei, about 30 degrees, is the most common formal bow. 最敬礼 saikeirei, from 45 to 70 degrees, is kept for very important people, apologies and large favours.

Moshimoshi, tadaima and okaeri

On the telephone, Japanese answers with もしもし moshimoshi. Wiktionary derives it from 申す mōsu, a humble verb meaning to speak, doubled: roughly I am speaking, I am speaking. Wiktionary adds a second use: checking whether the other person is still listening, or whether anyone is there at all.

Coming home has its own pair. The person who arrives says ただいま tadaima, from 只今, just now, or short for ただいま帰りました, I have just come back. Those at home answer おかえりなさい okaerinasai, welcome back, or the shorter おかえり. Wiktionary glosses tadaima as hello, here I am, I'm home: three attempts at one word.