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Japanese Vocabulary for Chores and Daily Routines 

 August 18, 2020

By  Paolo Palabrica

Expressing various daily routines in Japanese can be mostly straightforward. However, though the sentence structure itself may be simple, cultural differences from other countries can make direct translation difficult or confusing for some of these terms.

Daily Routine Vocabulary

One basic example is the generic term for “cleaning”. This is usually spoken in colloquial Japanese as “kirei ni suru” (綺麗にする).

When translated directly to English, this would always be closer to the phrase “make (it) beautiful, pure or spotless”. True, we definitely sometimes use the term to refer to “cleaning”, but not as commonly as the Japanese people use the term “kirei ni suru” in everyday life. 

As we can see below, there are two more additional terms for “cleaning”, but these are far more direct, with the terminology directly referring to the exact same thing in English.

Also, keep in mind that these are only the most commonly used terms, as you can get more specific by using more verbs and further adding different action terminologies.

English
Romaji
Kanji
Kana

Brush teeth

Ha wo migaku

歯を磨く

はをみがく

Change clothes

Kigaeru

着替える

きがえる

Cleaning (tidying up)

Souji (suru)

掃除 (する)

そうじ

Cleaning (treatment)

Seisou (suru)

清掃 (する)

せいそう

Commute to work

Tsuukin (suru)

通勤 (する)

つうきん

Cook a meal

Ryouri (suru)

料理 (する)

りょうり

Eat a meal

Shokuji wo suru

食事をする

しょくじをする

Use/Fiddle with a PC

Pasokon wo ijiru

パソコンを弄る

パソコンをいじる

Go home

(Uchi ni) kaeru

(内に) 帰る

うちにかえる

Go out (to something)

Dekakeru

出かける

でかける

Go to school

Gakkou ni iku

学校に行く

がっこうにいく

Have fun/Visit a place

Asobi ni iku

遊びに行く

あそびにいく

Household chores

Kaji wo suru

家事をする

かじをする

Laundry

Sentaku (suru)

洗濯 (する)

せんたく

Shopping

Kaimono (suru)

買い物 (する)

かいもの

Sleep

Neru

寝る

ねる

Study

Benkyou (suru)

勉強 (する)

べんきょう

Take a (tub) bath

Ofuro ni hairu

お風呂に入る

おふろにはいる

Take a nap

Kamin wo toru

仮眠を取る

かみんをとる

Take a shower

Shawaa wo abiru

シャワーを浴びる

シャワーをあびる

Wake up

Okiru

起きる

おきる

Walking

(O) Sanpo (suru)

(お) 散歩 (する)

さんぽ

Wash face

Kao wo arau

顔を洗う

かおをあらう

Watch TV

Terebi wo miru

テレビを見る

テレビをみる

Keep in mind, that the words that have the optional “suru” (NOT “wo suru”) with them are actually nouns. This means that they are only treated as verbs when “suru” is added.

Reversely, you can structure the sentence using these terms directly when referring to the action of its meaning. For example, “nihongo no benkyou” (日本語の勉強, “The study of Japanese/Japanese studies”)

Paolo Palabrica


Paolo is a software engineer in the Philippines whose hobby is learning languages. He has self-studied Japanese for over 3 years, and now speaks 3 languages and 3 Philippine dialects.

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