{"id":107541,"date":"2023-06-13T18:43:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T22:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/japanese-vocabulary\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:19:10","slug":"japanese-vocabulary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/japanese\/japanese-vocabulary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Master List of Core Japanese Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

My favorite Japanese word is tsundoku<\/em>\u2014the art of buying too many books and never actually reading them. I enjoy having <\/em>books, even if they never get read, but what I don’t enjoy is spending time and effort learning Japanese words that I’ll never actually use.<\/p>\n

That’s where categorized and themed vocabulary lists come in handy.\u00a0Read on to acquire Japanese vocabulary that you’ll actually<\/em> use\u2014unlike all those books I have piled up on my bookshelf.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

Core Japanese Vocabulary<\/h2>\n

Your core vocabulary sets the foundation for the rest of your language learning. These are the first words you should learn, and you’ll keep referring to them throughout your language learning journey.<\/p>\n

In addition to everyday words like greetings and colors, Japan has very specific ways that it uses words. You’ll want to learn how to properly say “sorry” based on the occasion, the right way to refer to “you” without accidentally calling someone “darling” and more quirks unique to the Japanese language.<\/p>\n

Common Japanese words<\/h3>\n

https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/japanese\/japanese-core-vocabulary\/<\/p>\n

Colors in Japanese: Vocabulary and Pronunciation<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n