3.2 Katakana Loanwords, Greetings & Set Expressions

Katakana Loanwords (外来語, gairaigo)

Katakana カタカナ is used mainly for loanwords borrowed from other languages, and the N5 vocabulary paper tests a fixed, predictable set of everyday borrowings. Because most come from English (with a few from Portuguese, Dutch, or French), you can often guess the meaning — but only if you can read katakana fluently and decode Japanese sound rules. Three features trip up beginners the most: the long-vowel bar ー (as in コーヒー, kōhī, coffee), the small っ that doubles the following consonant (ベッド, beddo, bed), and the small ャ・ュ・ョ that form glide sounds (ニュース, nyūsu, news). Practising these features out loud is the fastest way to stop misreading katakana under time pressure.

Other high-frequency loanwords worth memorising include エレベーター (erebētā, elevator), スーパー (sūpā, supermarket), コンビニ (konbini, convenience store), ホテル (hoteru, hotel), プレゼント (purezento, present or gift), ケーキ (kēki, cake), ジュース (jūsu, juice), ビール (bīru, beer), ペン and ボールペン (pen, ballpoint pen), シャツ (shatsu, shirt), ズボン (zubon, trousers), ドア (doa, door), and カレンダー (karendā, calendar). Beware false-friend spellings: coffee is コーヒー (never コフィ), apartment is アパート but department store is デパート, and パン always means bread, never pan. These near-look-alikes are exactly what the orthography and paraphrase questions exploit as distractors.

Greetings, Set Phrases, and Question Words

Daily Greetings (挨拶, aisatsu)

Greetings are near-guaranteed points in the listening quick-response section and also appear in vocabulary paraphrase items. Learn them as time-of-day pairs and fixed exchanges rather than isolated words.

Memorise the paired exchanges the test loves: ありがとうございます → どういたしまして; いってきます → いってらっしゃい (leaving / seeing off); ただいま → おかえりなさい (returning home); and いただきます → ごちそうさまでした (before / after eating). Note that こんにちは and こんばんは end in the character は, pronounced wa here — a spelling the orthography question deliberately targets.

Set Phrases

Useful fixed expressions include ちょっと まってください (please wait a moment), もう いちど おねがいします (once more, please), わかりました / かしこまりました (understood — the second is more polite and formal), しつれいします (excuse me, when entering or leaving), and だいじょうぶです (I'm fine / it's OK). Watch けっこうです closely: depending on context it can mean no thank you (declining an offer) or that's fine / that's enough, so listening and paraphrase items hinge on the surrounding cue.

Question Words (疑問詞, gimonshi)

The 言い換え・類義 (Paraphrase) Question

Vocabulary question type 4, 言い換え類義 (いいかえ・るいぎ), shows a sentence and asks which of four options is closest in meaning. For example, 「ちょっと まってください」 is paraphrased by 「すこし まってください」 because ちょっと and すこし both mean a little. Likewise 「いそがしい」(busy) matches 「やることが おおい」(have a lot to do), and 「けっこうです」 used to decline matches 「いりません」(I don't need it). Strategy: identify the key word, recall its synonym, and be alert to antonyms planted as distractors — あつい ↔ つめたい (hot ↔ cold), おおい ↔ すくない (many ↔ few), and うえ ↔ した (above ↔ below) are frequent traps. Building a mental map of synonyms and opposites together is the single best preparation for this question type.

Reading Katakana Accurately and Choosing the Right Politeness

Decoding Katakana Sounds

Because katakana represents borrowed sounds, small orthographic marks change meaning, and the exam tests whether you notice them. The long-vowel bar ー doubles the vowel length, so コーヒー is kōhī (coffee), not kohi, and ビール is bīru (beer), not ビル (biru, a building). A small ッ before a consonant doubles it: ベッド (beddo, bed) and ポケット (poketto, pocket). Small ャ・ュ・ョ combine with an i-row kana to make a single syllable: ニュース (nyūsu, news) and ジュース (jūsu, juice). Reading these features quickly and accurately turns katakana items into easy points, because most words are recognisable English once decoded.

Politeness Levels in Greetings and Replies

Many greetings have both a plain and a polite form, and the listening quick-response section checks that you match the register. おはよう is casual among friends and family, while おはようございます is the polite form for teachers, colleagues, and strangers; likewise ありがとう is casual and ありがとうございます is polite. When someone thanks you, the natural reply is どういたしまして (you're welcome); when someone apologises with すみません, you answer いいえ or だいじょうぶです, not どういたしまして. When you leave a room politely you say しつれいします. These fixed pairings are exactly what the 即時応答 (quick-response) items reward, so drill them as call-and-response. A useful rule is that adding ございます or なさい raises the politeness a level, which is why a workplace or school scene almost always uses the longer forms while a family scene at home uses the short ones.

A Worked Paraphrase and Common Traps

Consider this paraphrase item: 「この みせは ゆうめいです」 asks for the closest meaning, and the answer 「この みせは よく しられています」(this shop is well known) matches ゆうめい (famous). The distractor options usually plant an antonym or an unrelated adjective. Two common beginner mistakes appear here: confusing 上手 (じょうず, skilled) with 好き (すき, liked) — being good at something is not the same as liking it — and reading the topic marker は as ha instead of wa. Finally, remember that けっこうです can either accept or decline depending on tone and context, so paraphrase and listening items about it always supply a surrounding cue such as a preceding いいえ or a hand gesture. Studying synonyms and antonyms side by side, in the same notebook page, is the single most efficient preparation for the 言い換え・類義 question type.