Sunday, October 3, 2010

挨拶(Greetings)

挨拶 Greetings

Most greetings in Japanese are left in their hiragana forms, even if they contain kanji. Therefore, there is little kanji to learn from the basic greetings, though if you want you can look up the nearly obsolete kanji.

1.おはようございます。 Good morning.
2.こんにちは Good afternoon
3.こんばんは Good evening
4.(お)元気 (ですか)? Lively? / Doing well? [Use for people you haven't seen in a while]
5.お元気でしたか?元気だった? Been lively? Been well?
6.ただいま
 Respond: お帰り!
7. 初めまして 。Nice to meet you.

基本を超えて (Beyond the basics)
The former list of words are the kinds of greetings you can find in just about any elementary level Japanese textbook. Now for a further look at Japanese greetings. I will try to exhaust the list to the best of my ability. If you have any other greetings you'd like to add, feel free submit them to me.

元気にしている? Are you well?
調子はどう(ですか) How's it going? Lit. How is your condition?)
ご機嫌いかがですか?How is your mood/spirits?
ご機嫌よう? Spirits good?
お久しぶりです! Long time no see.
もうかりもっか Making any money? (Osaka dialect)


Resonse to greeting questions
元気している/元気です。
調子よ Good mood, you know!
まあ なんとか やっています。(I've been managing somehow.)
ぼちぼち です / やっています。 (Little by little I've been getting by)
相変わらずだよ。(Same as always)
全部: お蔭様で 何もともなく Thanks to you/God/Buddha. Nothing special.

漢字の復習
かんじのふくしゅう
Kanji Review
漢字
かんじ
Chinese characters
復習
ふくしゅう
Revenge, review
挨拶
あいさつ


基本
きほん
Basics
超える
こえる
To cross over,
pass through, go beyond
機嫌
きげん
Spirits, mood“kihon” sounds like “nihon”
Remember “Basic Japanese phrases”
久しぶり
ひさしぶり
We bought the“coil” mattress at Bed Bath and Beyond.
調子
ちょうし
Tune,tone,key,mood,manner,style,knack,condition,state of health...
相変わらず
あいかわらず
Same as always
全部
ぜんぶ
all
お蔭様で
おかげさまで
Thanks to you,god,buddha

Of course, there are many slang variants of saying hello.  I will include those at a later time.

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