The 5,000 most common Japanese words
Ranked by how often they actually turn up in spoken dialogue, not by how useful somebody guessed they would be.
Every number below is counted from a corpus, and the corpus is named at the bottom.
What each step buys you
Learn the first 100 words of Japanese and you follow 67.0% of everyday speech. The first 1000 take you to 84.8%. After that every thousand words buys less than the thousand before it, which is exactly why the order matters.
| Words known | Speech followed | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 31.8% | |
| 50 | 59.2% | |
| 100 | 67.0% | |
| 250 | 74.8% | |
| 500 | 80.0% | |
| 1,000 | 84.8% | |
| 2,000 | 89.1% | |
| 3,000 | 91.4% | |
| 5,000 | 94.0% | |
| 8,000 | 96.1% | |
| 10,000 | 96.9% | |
| 15,000 | 98.1% | |
| 20,000 | 98.7% |
Comfortable reading starts around 98%. Everything before that is still worth doing, but the first hundred words buy you a foothold, not comprehension.
The first 100 words of Japanese
In order. The percentage is the share of ordinary speech you cover once you know that word and every word above it.
- 1ใ4.25%
- 2ใฎ8.25%
- 3ใฏ11.68%
- 4ใฆ14.97%
- 5ใ18.09%
- 6ใซ21.12%
- 7ใช24.05%
- 8ใ26.73%
- 9ใ29.29%
- 10ใ 31.79%
- 11ใ34.09%
- 12ใง36.14%
- 13ใ38.05%
- 14ใฃ39.94%
- 15ใ41.28%
- 16ใจ42.55%
- 17ใ43.64%
- 18ใ44.66%
- 19ใ45.66%
- 20ใ46.65%
- 21ใ47.4%
- 22ใพ48.1%
- 23็ง48.73%
- 24ใ49.35%
- 25ใ49.96%
- 26ไฝ50.55%
- 27ใ51.07%
- 28ใใ51.58%
- 29ใ52.04%
- 30ใ52.49%
- 31ใญ52.92%
- 32ใใ53.33%
- 33ใใ53.74%
- 34ๅฝผ54.14%
- 35ใ54.54%
- 36ใ54.92%
- 37ใใจ55.31%
- 38ใใ55.65%
- 39ใใชใ56.0%
- 40ใ56.32%
- 41ใฉใ56.64%
- 42ๅ56.95%
- 43ใ57.26%
- 44่จ57.56%
- 45ไฟบ57.85%
- 46ใ58.14%
- 47ใใ58.41%
- 48ใ58.67%
- 49ใใฃ58.93%
- 50่ก59.18%
- 51ใใ59.42%
- 52ใใ59.65%
- 53ใใ59.88%
- 54ใใฎ60.1%
- 55ไบ60.31%
- 56ใใ60.52%
- 57ไบบ60.73%
- 58็ฅ60.93%
- 59ใ61.13%
- 60ใฐ61.33%
- 61ใใฎ61.53%
- 62่ชฐ61.73%
- 63ๅฝผๅฅณ61.93%
- 64ๆ62.12%
- 65่ฆ62.31%
- 66ใฃใฆ62.5%
- 67ใๅ62.69%
- 68่ฉฑ62.88%
- 69ใ ใฃ63.05%
- 70ใค63.23%
- 71ใ63.41%
- 72ใใ63.58%
- 73ใใ63.74%
- 74ๆฅ63.89%
- 75ๅ64.03%
- 76ใใ64.18%
- 77ใงใ64.32%
- 78ใ ใ64.47%
- 79ใชใ64.61%
- 80่ 64.75%
- 81ใใ64.89%
- 82ไป65.03%
- 83ๅใ65.17%
- 84ใใก65.29%
- 85่65.41%
- 86ๅบ65.53%
- 87ใพใง65.65%
- 88ใใฉ65.76%
- 89ใฉใ65.88%
- 90ใใ65.99%
- 91ๆญป66.1%
- 92ใธ66.22%
- 93ๆ66.33%
- 94ๆฎบ66.43%
- 95้66.54%
- 96ใใ66.65%
- 97ๅ66.75%
- 98ไธญ66.86%
- 99ๅฟ ่ฆ66.95%
- 100ใฟ67.05%
Japanese does not separate words with spaces, so what is counted here are the segments the corpus splits on, not whole words. The order is still right and the coverage is still real, but read the list as building blocks rather than dictionary entries.
Open all 5,000 words in the codex →
In the codex you tap the ones you already know and the number moves. It stays in your browser, no account.
Where Japanese comes from
Japonic › Japanese
One family, essentially one language.
Its relationship to anything else is still unsettled.
Words Japanese has that English never built
- ๆจๆผใๆฅ ko-mo-REH-beeSunlight filtering through the leaves of trees
- ็ฉ่ชญ tsoon-DOH-kooBuying books and letting them pile up unread
- ็ฉใฎๅใ MO-no no a-WA-rehThe gentle sadness of things, because they end
- ๆฃฎๆๆตด shin-rin-YO-kooBathing in the forest, as a treatment
- ็ใ็ฒๆ ee-kee-GUYThe reason you get up, small enough to be true
- ไพๅฏ WAH-bee SAH-beeThe beauty of what is worn, uneven and passing
- ้็ถใ kin-TSOO-gheeRepairing with gold, so the break shows
Where the numbers come from
Frequencies counted over the OpenSubtitles 2018 dialogue corpus, 13,228,940 tokens of Japanese in total. Lists compiled by Hermit Dave, released under CC BY-SA 3.0. Subtitles skew towards conversation, which is the point: this is the language people speak, not the language people publish.