Japanese study guide
Common Japanese Vocabulary for Everyday Conversation
Common Japanese vocabulary for talking about feelings, opinions and small talk — words the frequency lists and phrasebooks both tend to skip.
Frequency lists tend to surface nouns and basic verbs first, since those carry the most raw meaning. But actual conversation — how are you, what do you think, how was it — leans on a different, smaller set of words: feelings, opinions, and the adverbs that shade a sentence. Here's the common vocabulary that fills that gap.
Talking about how you feel
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 嬉しい | うれしい | happy, glad |
| 楽しい | たのしい | fun, enjoyable |
| 悲しい | かなしい | sad |
| 寂しい | さびしい | lonely |
| 怖い | こわい | scary |
| 眠い | ねむい | sleepy |
| 疲れる | つかれる | to get tired |
| 痛い | いたい | painful, it hurts |
| 恥ずかしい | はずかしい | embarrassed |
| 心配 | しんぱい | worried (na-adj) |
疲れる is shown in its dictionary form, but the form you will actually say is the past tense 疲れた — Japanese treats being tired as a state you have already entered, so 今日は疲れた means "I'm tired today", not "I was tired".
Giving opinions and reacting
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 好き | すき | liked, favorite (na-adj) |
| 嫌い | きらい | disliked (na-adj) |
| 思う | おもう | to think |
| 感じる | かんじる | to feel |
| 賛成 | さんせい | agreement |
| 反対 | はんたい | disagreement, opposition |
| 大丈夫 | だいじょうぶ | fine, okay (na-adj) |
| 本当 | ほんとう | true, really |
| もちろん | もちろん | of course |
Adverbs that shade a sentence
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| とても | とても | very |
| あまり | あまり | not very (with negative) |
| ぜんぜん | ぜんぜん | not at all (with negative) |
| いつも | いつも | always |
| よく | よく | often, well |
| たまに | たまに | occasionally |
| もう | もう | already |
| まだ | まだ | still, not yet |
| すぐに | すぐに | right away |
| ちょっと | ちょっと | a little, slightly |
Small talk connectors
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| でも | でも | but |
| だから | だから | so, therefore |
| それで | それで | and then, so |
| やっぱり | やっぱり | as expected, after all |
| たしかに | たしかに | certainly, that's true |
| なるほど | なるほど | I see, that makes sense |
| そうですね | そうですね | that's right, let me think |
| じゃあ | じゃあ | well then |
Why these words matter more than their frequency rank suggests
None of these are the highest-frequency words in Japanese overall — words like する, ある, and こと outrank most of them on raw counts, and that list is worth learning too. But frequency-by-word-count and frequency-in-actual-conversation aren't the same thing. Ask someone how they're doing, or react to what they just said, and this is the vocabulary that comes up — disproportionately to how often it shows up in written text.
Making them stick
These words reward learning in context more than most, since a feeling word or adverb only really makes sense attached to a sentence — 疲れた means little on its own, but 今日は疲れた (I'm tired today) is immediately usable. Pair each word with a real example sentence and audio, review on a spaced schedule, and practice producing the word from the meaning rather than just recognizing it — see recognition vs. recall for why that distinction matters.
Ready for the next set? See beginner Japanese vocabulary for question words and time, or go broader with essential JLPT N5 vocabulary.