itterasshai, okaeri : What to Say When You Leave or Come Home : itterasshai ? Okaeri ? We’ve talked about a lot of phrases in other articles that are hard to translate into English. So let’s hit four big ones in this article.
Contents
itterasshai” (いってらっしゃい), “ittekimasu” (いってきます), “tadaima” (ただいま), and “okaeri” (おかえり)
Let’s talk about the phrases “itterasshai” (いってらっしゃい), “ittekimasu” (いってきます), “tadaima” (ただいま), and “okaeri” (おかえり).
| Meaning | Romaji | Japanese |
| When you leave home, you say “ittekimasu.” | Ittekimasu | いってきます |
| “Itterasshai” is the proper response when someone tells you they’re leaving. | Itterasshai | いってらっしゃい |
| The phrase you can say when you return home is “tadaima” | Tadaima | ただいま |
| The reply to “Tadaima” | Okaeri | おかえり |
These phrases are all connected to each other and part of a cultural custom that we don’t really have in English speaking countries.
When Will You Hear These? :itterasshai
Let’s lay out the most basic situation. Say you’re Japanese. You leave the house to head to school. As you go out the door, you call to your mom in the kitchen and say “Ittekimasu!” She responds with “Itterasshai!” When you come home way too late after cram school, you step into the genkan to kick off your shoes and say “Tadaima.” Your mom pokes her head out of the living room and replies “Okaeri.”
Does this sound familiar? Maybe you’ve seen it in anime? Probably. Because these are the phrases used when someone is leaving home and coming home. They’re literally used every time, the exact same way.
Although these words are super common, you will almost never see them written. You may have noticed that they are all written completely in kana. Of course, you could probably write them in kanji, but you really won’t be writing these ones pretty much ever. Honestly, typing this article was the first time I had ever written “ただいま” in my life.
That’s because the situations that call for these phrases are almost exclusively verbal. Unless you’re writing dialogue, you won’t write these.
These phrases are also only used for when someone leaves or returns to their home. It would be weird for you to say “okaeri” to a friend who is coming to your house.
Phrases for Leaving – Ittekimasu
We can look at the meaning of these phrases a bit deeper to help you really get a handle on them. Knowing the direct meanings always helps me remember things, and hopefully it helps you too. We’ll start with the first two.
When you leave home, you say “ittekimasu.” Breaking down this one isn’t too hard. “Itte” comes from the verb “iku” (行く) and “kimasu” is from “kuru” (来る). If you’ve been studying Japanese more than a couple weeks, you hopefully know that these mean “to go” and “to come” respectively. So “ittekimasu” means “I’m going and coming.”
You may have noticed the fact that “kuru” in this phrase takes a polite ending (kimasu). For some reason, these phrases tend to stay polite. I’ve heard “ittekuru” on really rare occasions, but it’s best to stick with the more commonly used polite form.
“Itterasshai” is the proper response when someone tells you they’re leaving. This has the same first part with “itte” coming from “iku.” The “rasshai” part comes from the word “irasshai” (いらっしゃい), which is a very polite way to say “come” or “stay.” You’ll hear this every time you enter a store when the workers greet you with the phrase “Irasshaimase!” They’re basically politely saying “You’re here!” So all together, this phrase means (very politely) “go and come.”
Phrases for Returning – Okaeri
The phrase you can say when you return home is “tadaima”. This breaks down into “tada” which means “only” or “just” in a case like this, and “ima” (今) which means “now.” I always think of this as translating to “I just now got home.” It’s a bit more wordy than the Japanese, but it conveys the right meaning.
“Okaeri” is actually a more casual, shortened version of the full phrase “Okaeri nasai” (おかえりなさい). You can determine which to say to a person returning home based on your relationship with them and what is appropriate.
If we break down this phrase, we can see that it’s in polite command form (that’s the o- and nasai bits). So it is literally a command saying “come home.” But politely.
Why Are These(itterasshai,okaeri) Important?
If you’re staying in Japan, especially with Japanese people, these are really good phrases to know. In Japan, these phrases are used by pretty much everyone when someone leaves home. It’s a nice way to show people you care about them when they head off somewhere.
Just remember to use these only when you or someone is leaving the house they live in, otherwise it might sound a bit off.
itterasshai !!! and Okaeri !!!