Daily Expressions - Greetings

This is something everybody gets excited over when pursuing a new language...to actually say some words that mean something without the need to construct sentences makes people go crazy hehe

Anyway, today I will start with basic greetings:

おはよう　ございます is used until around 10:30AM. Gozaimasu is just an expression that is used to confirm the statement politely and humbly. Sometimes you'll find people don't pronounce the u at the end...it is also correct, but saying u is more formal and old fashioned. I used to pronounce it when I first started learning Japanese, because I thought it sounded cooler hehe but now I feel it sounds more natural without.

As you will notice in future lessons, the Japanese are very polite in their speech, so we'll be learning many other polite expressions as we go along, but I will be adding a casual option and maybe even slang in the future. Learning the polite form is a must though because you don't want to offend anyone.

こんにちは is used from 10:30AM to about 6PM (sundown). You must pronounce each syllable and letter without connecting them.

So do not read it as:

Ko nni chiwa ✕

Read it as:

kon ni chiwa ✓

I am sure you've noticed that I had written Konnichiwa with は instead of わ (no I didn't mis-spell it) it is because the WA at the end is a particle and not a syllable within the word.

In the olden days, it used to be written as Konnichi wa, so it was easier to distinguish the particles from the actual words, but now it has become one word...

I'll be explaining particles in later posts so please bear with me... just have patience and you'll understand everything with time.

Just like with こんにちは、こんばんは is written with a WA particle. This term is used when it's dark so anytime after 6PM.

おやすみ なさい can also mean sweet dreams and is often said without なさい.

Well, that is all for this lesson.