japanese

slang phrases pt.1

14 Japanese Slang Phrases That Will Make You Sound Badass

Here are some fun phrases you should try to practice. Try them out and see how people around you react.

1. おっす！ (What’s up?)

Want to surprise your Japanese friends? Just say おっす to them next time you meet. Strike a pose or something while you’re at it. (It’s slightly more boyish, perhaps.)

おっす used to be a military greeting and was considered highly formal. It’s still commonly used among martial artists. Nowadays it means what’s up? among young people. Not that many people actually use it, so it can be considered kind of quirky — but that’s all right if you’re already standing out as a foreigner.

For a more conservative approach try こんちはー, a shortened form of こんにちは, which means good day/hello in case you’re wondering.

2. よー！ (Hey!)

This one can be varied quite a lot.

よー！ is the usual way of saying “hey!” as a friendly greeting. おい！ sounds like the British oi! and has the exact same meaning. Never use this with strangers since it’s kind of impolite.

If you’re saying “hi” to some close friends and you want to be a badass, then use よー、お前ら！(よー、おまえら！– Hey, guys!) This is part greeting, part friendly insult. It’s more like saying “‘sup dorkface,” which can be a friendly greeting if spoken to a close friend, but a bit too much with anyone else.

As a side note, the personal pronoun お前 (おまえ) is conventionally reserved for enemies. It’s extremely impolite except when used by close friends.

3. 調子どう？ (ちょうしどう？- How’s it Hanging?)

調子どう？ simply means “How’s it hanging?” Next time you’re at a social gathering with friends, just ask everyone this question until it sticks. You may get some interesting reactions, and results may vary.

You can also use おげんこ？, which is a shortened version of お元気ですか ？(おげんきですか？), Japanese for “how are you?”

4. 相変わらずだよ (あいかわらずだよ — Same as Always, Man)

I don’t usually hear this one a lot. Tokyo people are more likely to just say まあまあだよ meaning “so so.” As far as 相変わらずだよ goes, the ending particle, よ, of that sentence asserts a sort of confidence in the same way that the English word “man” does when used as slang.

5. ごめんちゃい/ごめんくさい/めんごめんご (Slangy Apologies)

These are all slangy forms of ごめんなさい (I’m sorry). Really, if you want to apologize properly then you should say ごめんなさい, but if what you did wasn’t that serious — or if you want to sound cute — then the slangier forms will work.

ごめんちゃい and ごめんくさい are sort of fun and light-hearted. めんごめんご will make most people cringe when they hear it. They might just forgive you out of embarrassment.

Of course, there’s also a cool guy way to apologize. Just say わりいーね, which means “my bad.”

6. またねー！ (Later!)

There are a few options here.

またねー and じゃーね are the most common ways of saying “see you later.”

あばよ is how a tough guy says “later.” The よ suffix basically means, “I’m certain.” That’s how confident you have to be to use this sentence. Most people won’t take you too seriously if you speak like that, though.

7. 一足す一は？ (いちたすいちは？ — Say Cheese)

一足す一は？ means one plus one is? and the answer, in Japanese, is 二 (に). As in にー, which is what you say when someone takes a photo of you.

Cheese works as well, but you have to voice it with Japanese intonation, チーズ (ちーず).