The 50 Most Common Japanese Words in Anime
の, だ, は, た, て. That's the start of the list, and it already tells you something: the most common words in anime are small grammar words. I counted every word spoken in 120 anime, and the 50 most common make up half of everything said. Twenty-five of them are particles and verb endings. The rest are the first words with a meaning of their own.
The top 50
| Rank | Word | Romaji | Meaning | Per 10,000 words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | の | no | possessive / of | 512 |
| 2 | だ | da | is/are/am | 502 |
| 3 | は | wa | topic marker | 286 |
| 4 | た | ta | past tense (did) | 276 |
| 5 | て | te | te-form | 270 |
| 6 | に | ni | to/at/in | 245 |
| 7 | が | ga | subject marker | 210 |
| 8 | ない | nai | not / there isn't | 195 |
| 9 | か | ka | question marker | 174 |
| 10 | する | suru | to do | 170 |
| 11 | を | o | object marker | 170 |
| 12 | も | mo | also/too | 150 |
| 13 | と | to | and/with | 140 |
| 14 | よ | yo | emphasis | 123 |
| 15 | で | de | at/by/with | 120 |
| 16 | です | desu | to be (polite) | 95 |
| 17 | てる | teru | is 〜ing | 89 |
| 18 | な | na | don't (〜な) / casual end | 84 |
| 19 | 何 | nani | what | 76 |
| 20 | から | kara | from / because | 75 |
| 21 | ます | masu | polite verb ending | 75 |
| 22 | ね | ne | right? / isn't it | 71 |
| 23 | って | tte | quote marker | 70 |
| 24 | ん | n | not (casual 〜ん, 〜ず) | 67 |
| 25 | 言う | iu | to say | 63 |
| 26 | お | o | polite prefix (o-) | 58 |
| 27 | いる | iru | to be | 57 |
| 28 | こと | koto | thing (idea) | 56 |
| 29 | いい | ii | good / fine | 51 |
| 30 | 俺 | ore | I (rough) | 47 |
| 31 | ある | aru | to exist | 43 |
| 32 | それ | sore | that | 42 |
| 33 | さん | san | Mr. / Ms. (-san) | 42 |
| 34 | なる | naru | to become | 41 |
| 35 | 私 | watashi | I | 40 |
| 36 | 来る | kuru | to come | 37 |
| 37 | この | kono | this | 37 |
| 38 | れる | reru | passive form | 34 |
| 39 | どう | dou | how / what about | 33 |
| 40 | 行く | iku | to go | 32 |
| 41 | これ | kore | this | 31 |
| 42 | お前 | omae | you (rude) | 30 |
| 43 | やる | yaru | to do / give | 29 |
| 44 | そう | sou | so / like that | 29 |
| 45 | けど | kedo | but (casual) | 27 |
| 46 | ば | ba | if / then | 26 |
| 47 | その | sono | that 〜 | 25 |
| 48 | 見る | miru | to see | 24 |
| 49 | ちゃん | chan | -chan (cute suffix) | 23 |
| 50 | もう | mou | already / anymore | 21 |
Source: Watch Anime, Learn Japanese. "Per 10,000 words" is how many times the word is spoken in every 10,000 words of dialogue.
Twenty-five of the 50 are grammar
Particles (の, は, が, を, に, で) and verb endings (だ, た, ない, です, ます) make up 25 of the top 50, and together they're 41% of everything said. You can't skip them, but you don't need a dictionary for them either. You learn them by hearing them, which is why anime is such a good teacher of them.
See the Top 10 Particles with furigana in Yomikit →The first words that carry meaning
The first word in the list with a meaning of its own is する (to do), at number 10. After that, in order: 何 (what), 言う (to say), いる (to be), こと (thing), いい (good), 俺 (I), ある (to exist), それ (that), and なる (to become). If you want a place to start with vocabulary, start there. The full set of verbs is in the top verbs list.
Anime says 俺, not 私
Textbooks teach 私 and あなた first. Anime uses something different. 俺 (I, rough) ranks 30th and 私 ranks 35th. お前 (you, rude) ranks 42nd, and あなた doesn't show up until 70th. The same goes for 僕 (I, softer), which is 76th. Anime is how people sound when they're angry, excited or joking, and the list shows it.
Where to go from here
- How many words you need to understand anime: the full coverage curve, from 20 words to 210.
- Watch Anime, Learn Japanese: the 210 words as word cards, the top 1,000 list, and the data behind this page.
- How Many Do You Know?: flip the 20 most common words and see how much you already understand.
Questions
- What are the most common Japanese words in anime?
- In order: の (no), だ (da), は (wa), た (ta), and て (te). All five are small grammar words. The first word with a meaning of its own is する (to do), at number 10.
- Why are the most common words particles?
- Particles and verb endings are the glue of every sentence, so they show up in nearly every line. In the 1,432 episodes I counted, the 25 particles and endings in the top 50 make up 41% of everything said.
- Is 俺 more common than 私 in anime?
- Yes. 俺 (ore) ranks 30th and 私 (watashi) ranks 35th. お前 (omae, "you") ranks 42nd, well ahead of あなた (anata) at 70th.
- How often does the most common word appear?
- の appears about 512 times in every 10,000 words spoken, roughly once every 20 words.
How I counted
I counted every word spoken in the Japanese subtitles of the first 12 episodes of 120 anime, 20 shows from each of six genres: 1,432 episodes and 3,313,663 words in all. The full ranking, all 1,000 words, is in Watch Anime, Learn Japanese. You're welcome to reuse these numbers under CC BY 4.0: credit Yomikit and link to this page.