japanese phrases — explained
a lot of beginners wonder why “こんにちは” is spelled with a は instead of a わ. that is because こんにちは (in kanji, 今日は) is actually the beginning of a sentence, in which こんにち (今日, these days) is the topic, so the particle は is used! this sentence is:
“how are you these days?”
今日はご機嫌いかがですか?
(こんにちはごきげんいかがですか?)
this also applies to “こんばんは” (good evening).
in casual speech this phrase is shortened to “おはよう”. the phrase “おはよう” is a combination of the honorific prefix お and the adverb 早く(はやく, early).
japanese adjectives used to end -ki. however, the /k/ was dropped during the muromachi period, and -ki adjectives became -i adjectives and their adverbial forms -ku became -u. while adjectives stayed in the -i form, the adverbial form reverted back to -ku, with only some expressions staying in the -u form.
/ohayaku/ → /ohayau/ → /ohayoː/
ございます is ~ ます conjugation of the archaic verb ござる (to be, to exist).
(おはようございます = honorific お + 早く, old adverbial form + polite conjugation of “to be”.)
in casual speech this phrase is shortened to “おやすみ”. again, the honorific prefix お is used. this this it is combined with the 休みなさい (やすみなさい) which is the polite imperative of 休む (やすむ) “to rest”.
lit.: it is difficult to exist, it is welcome
in casual speech this phrase is shortened to “ありがとう”. it originated from the adverb ありがたく (welcome, nice to have). similar to おはよう, this adverb is also one of those expressions where the form with the dropped /k/ is still used.
/ariɡataku/ → /ariɡatau/ → /ariɡatoː/
the etymology of the adverb itself can be seen through its kanji 有り難う. 有り (あり) “existence” derived from the verb 有る (ある) “to be” is combined with the archaic adjective 難い (かたい) “hard, difficult”, making it the adjective 有り難い (ありがたい) which is also used nowadays and means “welcome, nice to have”, literally however it would mean “it is difficult for something like this to exist” (which is why you’re thankful to have it :) )
this is combined with ございます, the ~ ます conjugation of the archaic verb ござる (to be, to exist).
(ありがとうございます = ありがとう, the adverbial form of 有り難い (ありがたい) “welcome, difficult to exist” + ございます “to be”)
いただきます
→ thank you for the food
this phrase is said before eating and means something along the lines of “let’s eat!” or “thank you for the food”. it is the polite ~ます conjugation of the humble verb 頂く(いただく) to receive.
ごちそうさまでした
→ thank you for the food, it was delicious
lit.: it was a feast, you ran around a lot
this phrase also means “thank you for the food”, but it’s used after you’ve finished eating. in casual speech this phrase is shortened to “ごちそうさま”. the honorific prefix ご is used in front of the noun 馳走 (ちそう) and the honorific suffix 様 (さま) is attached simply for politeness . the archaic meaning of 馳走 (ちそう) is “running about” and it also means “feast or treat” because someone must’ve worked (ran about) a lot for that. then the past tense of the copula です “to be” → でした is attached.
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