Japanese Gratitude Guide: Perfecting Your Thank You Phrases

You want to learn Japanese and you clicked on our page in the Google results! ありがとうございます！(See what I did there? 👀)

Anyway, funny business aside—the ability to thank someone is fundamental in any language. Japanese is no different... though it may be a bit more complex than in other languages. Depending on the context, level of formality, and the relationship between the speaker and listener, there are various ways to say 'thank you.' To become fluent, understanding these differences and knowing when to use each phrase is an important step. Let's go over the most common ways to say 'thank you' in Japanese and how to use them.

1. ありがとう (Arigatou) — The most common way to say "thank you"

This is the most common and informal way to say “thank you.” It’s versatile and can be used in a wide variety of casual settings.

To make ありがとう (arigatou) more polite, you can add ございます (gozaimasu), which elevates the level of formality. ありがとうございます (arigatou gozaimasu) is often used in professional or respectful settings, or when talking to people you are not close with.

Lastly, ありがとうございます (arigatou gozaimasu) can also be turned into its past tense form ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita) . This form conveys thanks for something that has already been done or received.

2. どうも (Doumo) — A more casual "Thanks!"

どうも (doumo) can also serve as a quick and casual "thanks." It’s informal and often used in passing for minor favors.

どうも (doumo) can also be added to ありがとう (arigatou), forming どうもありがとう (doumo arigatou) , which makes the expression a bit stronger, roughly translating to “thank you very much” or “thanks a lot.” It’s still relatively informal. When used in this way, you can think of どうも (doumo) as strengthening the word that comes after, similar to "much."

In the next step どうも (doumo) can also be added to ありがとうございます (arigatou gozaimasu), resulting in どうもありがとうございます (doumo arigatou gozaimasu) , which again, is a more formal version of どうもありがとう (doumo arigatou).

3. すみません (Sumimasen) — Something like "You shouldn't have!"

While すみません (sumimasen) is often translated as “excuse me” or “I’m sorry,” it can also be used to say "thank you," particularly when you want to express gratitude for someone’s inconvenience or kindness toward you.

4. お疲れ様です (Otsukaresama desu) — "Thank you for your hard work"

お​疲​れ(つか)様(れ)です(さま)です​ (otsukaresama desu) is often used in work settings as a way to acknowledge and thank someone for their effort or hard work. It’s a culturally embedded way of expressing appreciation for someone’s contribution.

5. 誠にありがとうございます (Makoto ni arigatou gozaimasu) — (Formal) "Thank you very much"

This is one of the most formal ways to say "thank you," often used in business settings or in very polite conversation. The word 誠 (makoto) adds an extra layer of sincerity.

Cultural note + a quick note on bowing

In Japan, how you express gratitude goes beyond just words. Body language, tone, and context matter greatly. When thanking someone, it’s customary to bow, especially in formal settings. The depth of the bow can vary depending on the level of respect you’re showing; a deeper bow implies greater respect.

Then, exactly how you'll say "thank you" in Japanese often depends on context, formality, and your relationship to the receiver. This will become second nature eventually, but you'll need to keep it in mind for now.

How to say thank you in Japanese—plus ~1,500 other words!

Thank you is a good word to know in Japanese. There's no doubt about it.

The thing is, if you want to do much of anything in Japanese, there's about 1,500 other words you'll need to know, too.

Enter the Migaku Japanese Academy:

We sifted through a Mount Fuji-sized pile of subtitles, organized words by how frequently they occur, and discovered something very interesting:

That's a massive amount of bang for your buck, so we built a flashcard-based course to spoonfeed these hyper-frequently-occurring 1,500 words to you. You'll read about a grammar point and then commit it to memory by learning practical sentences that include that grammar point. Furthermore, each sentence includes just one unknown word, so the learning curve is super smooth.

It's pretty cool, and you can try it totally free for ten days.

Japanese thank you out, golden rule of language learning in

That about covers it!

On the off chance you're here because you're trying to find your way through Japanese—I'd like to impart a golden rule upon you. It's the only way you'll ultimately learn Japanese—regardless of what tool or approach you end up using.

So, read up on stuff like this 💪

But make sure you spend a bit of time today doing something cool in Japanese, too.