Ganbatte! All About The Little Japanese Expression That Could

This article will look at the origins of ganbatte

("do your best!") and explain how to use the many forms of ganbaru to be the best team player you can be in Japanese.

More specifically, we'll talk about:

The meaning of Ganbatte

がんばって (ganbatte) comes from 頑張る (ganbaru), a verb that means to persevere and work hard; especially when times are tough. The word carries the implicit meaning of seeing something through to the end. You can kind of see this by taking a close look at the kanji it's made of:

The first kanji 頑 carries the meaning “stubborn” or "firm."

The second kanji 張 carries the meaning “stretch" or "spread.”

And it is at this point where the history behind ganbaru gets interesting.

You see, etymologically speaking, there are two separate theories as to how we ended up with the modern ganbaru.

Both of these theories are rich with evidence dating back to the Edo period (1603–1867), but the main takeaway is the common denominator of 張る (haru). By noticing this kanji 張 which means to stretch or strain, you can see how this colors the article in a way that's a bit more nuanced than a simple "good luck"—there's also some "sticking to it" and "never giving up" mixed in there.

What's more, there are different "forms" of ganbaru (in linguistics, this is called conjugation). They all have the same basic underlying meaning, but their nuance is different. For example, a shout of がんばって (ganbatte) might be translated as “Hang in there!”, whereas the past tense がんばった (ganbatta) would likely be more straightforward: "I did my best."

Basically, a single translation can't tell us the whole story, here.

Japanese “Ganbatte” vs. English “Good Luck”

If がんばって (ganbatte) means good luck, why do we need an entire article about it?

Well, it's because things aren't quite that easy.

While every language can express every idea, and we can translate from one language to another just fine, there's always something lost in translation—some words have different nuances, and some ideas would be expressed differently (if they're expressed at all). These are, after all, entirely different cultures with different ways of communicating and seeing the world.

Now, let’s go through the usage and nuances of each form of ganbaru you’re likely to encounter.

Verbs and verb forms in the Japanese language

On the off-chance that you're new to the Japanese language, you should know that Japanese has three main types of verbs:

Ganbaru ends with -る, but is considered an う verb, not a -る verb. (This is tricky and annoying, but you'll get a feel for it as you spend more time with japanese.) A verb's type affects how it is conjugated.

Here are two tables with the most common forms of ganbaru—not all of them, but the ones you’re likely to hear and use when cheering someone on.

First, here's the plain forms of the verb, which you can use with people your age, family members, and people that you know well:

You can make these verb forms more polite by adding a ~ます sound at the end:

There are two important things to notice here:

1. がんばる Ganbaru → dictionary and present plain tense

This is perhaps the most flexible of Japanese's verb forms (so if it seems overwhelming, hang in there! The rest will be easier).

On its own, ganbaru

can mean a few different things:

And we can see that in these examples:

Meaning 1: Dictionary form 

This is what you'll see when you look がんばる up in the dictionary. In Japanese, the dictionary form also appears in combination with many other grammar points:

Here, "ことにしました" is a fixed phrase that means "to decide to do something", and it attaches directly to the dictionary form of verbs.

Meaning 2: Plain present tense

There aren't actually as many examples of this as you might think! The present moment is very brief, so you're rarely talking about literally right now. As such, when you see がんばる, it'll more often be referring to the future tense.

When it means the present tense, though, it'll often be in the form of a question:

Meaning 3: Future tense

Lastly, here's an example of an exchange that sees がんばる translated into the future tense:

Keep in mind, however, that this is the plain form and not polite form. In other words, this dialogue is a casual exchange amongst friends... but if your Japanese boss asked you this, oh boy! That’s what you’ll need the polite form for.

2. がんばります Ganbarimasu → present polite tense

Ganbaru can refer to both the present and future tense, and so can ganbarimasu

 . The only difference is that ganbarimasu has the polite ~masu ending, which replaces the る ending.

Generally speaking, the ~masu ending is used when you are addressing strangers or superiors. Superiors will likely use the plain form in response to you, because you're younger than them or in a social stratosphere below them, but this is not considered rude at all. In Japanese, the language you use with someone reflects your social standing in relation to them.

So, if we look at that same exchange from above, it would become:

(Note: In a real office setting, you might actually use honorific or humble language, which are steps above polite language. For now, though, just focus on the general idea! Plain form with friends and family, polite form with everyone else.)

3. がんばった Ganbatta (& がんばりました Ganbarimashita) → past tenses

This is the past tense, so it means you did work hard at some point. Just like in English, if you're going out of your way to say that you did your best, you'll often be doing so in a lamentable fashion—you struggled really hard for something but came up dry. For example, maybe you failed an exam after a night of cramming.

＊ せっかくがんばったのに can also be used on its own to mean a general cry of “And I worked so hard too!”

In a more positive vein, you'll also see the past tense form used in this common phrase:

It’s a warm bit of encouragement, and you can use it regardless of whether someone succeeds in an endeavor or not. Here's an example sentence that's more clearly commiserating / an expression of sympathy.

4. がんばって Ganbatte (& がんばってください Ganbatte kudasai) → commands

Perhaps the form you’re most familiar with. This is the ~て (te) form—otherwise known as the Swiss army knife of Japanese conjugations. ~て can be thought of as a link that lets you make use of more complex/compound verb forms. There are a lot of structures that build off of the ~て form, but we'll just focus on one here:

Japanese has a dedicated command form, which we'll discuss next... but the ~て form can also function as a kind of soft command. Like the parallel drawn between English’s “Hang in there!” or “Good luck!”, when you say がんばって

 , you’re telling someone to do something—but with a tone of friendliness (hopefully).

While がんばって is a soft command, it's still a direct command. You can make it more polite by tacking ~ください (please) onto the end of it. This means please.

Earlier, we spoke about the risk of glossing over nuance when relying on English translations. Just like English’s “Good luck”, when used in the wrong context, がんばって can offend instead of encourage.

If someone’s faced with an insurmountable stack of work to get through by sunrise and you throw them a "がんばって！", you may just drive the stake in deeper rather than encouraging them. Again, think of how sarcastic a “Good luck” might sound in the same context.

Hence, it’s important to immerse yourself in authentic media to learn these crucial bits of nuance.

5. がんばれ Ganbare → stronger command

We have positioned がんばれ

(ganbare) next to がんばって because their meaning is quite similar. This is a command form, just like がんばって, but it’s stronger and more intense than ganbatte.

If ganbatte is “Go for it!”, ganbare might be more like “Fight!!!”

For this reason, you’re more likely to hear ganbare shouted during sports matches—a place where competition gets heated. It is also why some people are convinced that ganbaru has roots in 我を張る (ga o haru, “to insist on one’s own ideas”)―winning a competitive match is all about forcing your way to victory through strategy and will.

As this command is very strong, stick with ganbatte for now. After you've spent more time interacting with Japanese, you'll develop a feel for when it's appropriate to bring out the heavier-hitting ganbare.

6. がんばろう Ganbarou (& がんばりましょう Ganbarimashou) → volitional form

Finally! We're at our last two forms; the volitional forms of ganbaru. "Volitional" is a fancy linguistic word that refers to intention or invitation. That's clear as mud—I know—but it'll make more sense when we look at a few examples.

Usage 1: Using the volitional form to communicate strong intent

First, let’s look at がんばろう

  (ganbarou) used to show intention. Consider the following sentence.

You could say がんばる in place of がんばろう here (and in many places), but using the volitional form conveys a stronger intent—it's like you're making a promise and committing yourself to do something.

Usage 2: Using the volitional form to make invitations

Rather than just communicating your own intentions, the volitional form can also be used to invite people to take action with you. In this case, it's nuance is pretty close to "let's..." in English:

To make this polite, once again, simply swap がんばろう for がんばりましょう

 .

Fired up? Here’s how you can learn Japanese without needing to ganbaru too hard

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[Challenge] Pick がんばっている out of the following video

がんばっている

, one of the forms we skipped, is used for the present-progressive tense—to say that you're in the process of doing your best, literally right now.

This Japanese fisherman says it twice.

Can you pick out where?

To the bitter end

Whether we use ganbatte, ganbare, or ganbatte kudasai, we are offering a cheer of encouragement: a “Hang in there!” or “Never say die!” style pick-me-up.

With all of these forms of ganbaru introduced in this article, Japanese may feel like a hopeless mountain of grammar and conjugations. But the trick is to not get hung up on the finer details―just focus on the journey and you’ll make your way through.

In fact, the golden role of language learning is:

... and now I'm going to say it:

がんばって！