Common Japanese Slang Sayings & Phrases

Here at Nihongo Master, we’re all about learning Japanese. Whether or not you want to become fluent or just learn a few useful Japanese phrases, we’re here to help! While we will also be making a guide to proper Japanese phrases, this guide is all about slang. Whether you’re living in Japan or just watching a lot of anime, you’re bound to hear Japanese slang sayings and phrases dropped in here and there. The way people talk on the street (especially young people) is never quite as formal as what they’ll teach you in a book. So here is a guide to help you understand and speak like a native!

The first audio clip is the formal, and the ones beneath are the Japanese slang sayings.

For our first example, let’s look at how some slang ends up getting formed:

Young people say “チーッス” (Chissu) in place of こんにちは (kon’nichiwa = Good afternoon)

It looks that チーッス was made like this:
こんにちは(kon’nichiwa)→ こんちわ(konchiwa)→ こんちわっす(konchiwassu)→ ちわっす(chiwassu)→ チーッス(chissu)

Like in every language, we end up using shortened versions of words or blending them together to make our lives easier and to save time and energy when talking. Let’s look at some more examples:

Here are some good greetings for the end of the year and the New Year:

(あけましておめでとうございます)

(さくねんはありがとうございました)

(ことしもよろしくおねがいします)

We will keep updating this guide with new slang phrases all the time, so come back and check. Have one you think we should add? Let us know!