Konbanwa こんばんは! : Hey guys, how’s it going today? If you’ve just started your journey with Japanese and are a little confused as to why there are so many ways to say hello, don’t worry, we’ve got you’re back. Today we are going to be discussing the greeting “Konbanwa” which is used much like how we express the notion of “Good Evening” in English.
Contents
How to master the use of “Konbanwa” in Japanese
We will be first breaking down the phrase and taking a closer look at how it is made up. Next, we will be then looking at when to use this phrase as well as some other rules that surround its usage. Lastly, we will be comparing this to the other Japanese greetings that are out there to make sure you don’t get mixed up.
Right, if you guys are ready to go let’s jump right in and start learning all about “konbanwa”
What does “konbanwa” mean and when should I use it?
It’s always a great icebreaker to use a greeting when you are starting a conversation, that’s why if you are a beginner it’s really important to get a hang of the basic greetings.
So what does “konbanwa” mean and when should I use this phrase? Well let’s start by looking at the different elements that are used to make up this phrase.
| こん | Kon | this |
| ばん | Ban | evening |
| は(Not わ) | wa | Topic marker |
So the first part of the word features “kon” which means “this”. The second part features the word “ban” which means “evening” and then it is finished off with the topic marker はWa
Now the first thing that you might have noticed is that even though the Romaji uses “WA” at the end the hiragana is actually “は”. The reason for this is that it is hard to pronounce in English as “HA” and it actually sounds more like “Wa”. You will see this with the topic marker all the time so you should get used to this anomaly.
Now the literal translation here is “This Evening”. You are essentially acknowledging to the listener that it is the evening, not the morning or day.
You can use this in roughly the same time as in English, from around 6pm until the morning.
So how do we use this phrase? Well it’s pretty similar to the way we use it in English. It can be used as a standalone word as you pass someone on the street, or it can be used to start a conversation or small talk. A great conversation opener. Let’s have a look at some examples:
こんばんは！今日のテストどうでしたか？
Konbanwa! Kyou no testo wa dou deshita la?
Good evening! How was today’s test
こんばんは！今日は一日中雨が降っていましたね。
Konbanwa! Kyou wa ichi nichi juu ame ga futteimashita ne
Good evening! It was raining all day today, wasn’t it?
こんばんは！食べにいきましょう！
konbanwa! Tabe ni ikimashou!
Good evening! Let’s go and eat!
As you can see from these examples, it is very similar to how we would use it in English. It helps break the ice and start a conversation. It’s also considered polite to use upon initiating a conversation in the evening too.
Other comparable greetings to not get it confused with
Now just to make sure that you guys don’t get this confused with the other greetings for Good morning and Good day, we will cover them now to clear this up.
| おはようございます | Ohayou gozaimasu | Good Morning |
| こんにちは | konnichiwa | Good Day |
With good morning, “ohayou gozaimasu” you won’t have much trouble in telling these phrases apart as they sound nothing like each other. However, you should pay attention to the greeting “Konnichiwa” which means good day. This sounds very similar to “konbanwa” and is made up of the same fundamental structure.
Try to practice using these different phrases at the different times of the day. This should really help you to get used to the greetings. It always pays to practice guys, and is the most efficient way to ensure that you retain all of today’s information.
So, there we have it guys, we hope you have enjoyed todays lesson. Like we said earlier, if you are just starting out on your Japanese language journey, it is really important to understand these basics and the theory behind them. Try to practice this as much as possible in the evening to help you get used to it and differentiate between the other greetings.
As always if you guys have any other ideas for content or questions you would like to ask us please feel free to get in touch as we always love hearing from you guys. Have a great day (or evening) everyone and we wish you the best of luck with your continued studies. Thanks for reading today’s online Japanese article from Bondlingo.
Konbanwa こんばんは!