Pronouns are used as a replacement to the nouns, such as people, animals, and things, in a sentence. Using pronouns makes your sentences shorter and clearer in terms of meaning. Thanks to pronouns, you can avoid repetitive usage of particular nouns in a sentence. In this article, we will talk about Japanese pronouns, but if we have to make it clear, here are the pronoun types in English:
Possessive pronoun (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs)
Personal pronoun (I, you, she, he, it, we, they, me, us, them)
Relative pronoun (who, whom, which, what, that)
Reflexive pronoun (myself, yourself, itself, herself, himself, ourselves, themselves)
Indefinite pronoun (some, somebody, anyone, anywhere, nothing, everybody)
Demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these, those)
Interrogative pronoun (who, whom, what, which, whose)
Reciprocal pronoun (each other, one another)
When it comes to the Japanese pronouns, they are very different from those in English because Japanese pronouns can be omitted from a sentence when they are implied through the context and that wouldn’t cause any misunderstanding between speakers.
There are many different variations of Japanese personal pronouns that could be translated as ‘I/me’ and ‘you’ however, not all of them are commonly used in daily life. Each Japanese pronoun variation shows the different characteristics of the speaker including gender, age, social status, level of respect, and the relationship with the person they are talking to. These various pronouns come from Japanese culture since they value respect, seniority, and social order in society.
Personal Pronouns In Japanese
There are dozens of personal pronouns in Japanese however, most of them aren’t commonly used so we will introduce the most frequently used Japanese personal pronouns in this post.
First Person Japanese Pronouns
| Kanji | Hiragana | Romaji | Level of formality | Gender |
| 私 | わたくし | watakushi | very formal | both |
| 私 | わたし | watashi | formal / informal | both |
| あたし | atashi | informal | female | |
| 僕 | ぼく | boku | informal | male |
| 俺 | おれ | ore | very informal | male |
Second Person Japanese Pronouns
| Kanji | Hiragana | Romaji | Level of formality | Gender |
| 貴方 | あなた | anata | formal / informal | both |
| 君 | きみ | kimi | informal | both |
| お前 | おまえ | omae | very informal | male |
| あんた | anta | very informal | both | |
| 貴様 | きさま | kisama | very rude and hostile | both |
Third Person Japanese Pronouns
| Kanji | Hiragana | Romaji | Level of Formality | Gender |
| 彼 | かれ | kare | formal / informal | he |
| 彼女 | かのじょ | kanojo | formal / informal | she |
Native Japanese people usually prefer to use the person’s name, or to describe them as あの人 (ano hito), meaning ‘that person’ this way you don’t have to indicate gender.
Fun Fact: Also, 彼 (kare) means boyfriend, and 彼女 (kanojo) means girlfriend.
1st, 2nd, 3rd Person Plural Form
In order to make Japanese personal pronouns plural, a suffix is added after them.
The suffix can be 達 (-tachi ), 方 (-gata), or ら (-ra), depending on which word comes before it.
| Kanji | Romaji | Meaning |
| 私達 | watashi-tachi | We |
| 貴方達 | anata-tachi | You |
| 彼ら | kare-ra | They |
| 彼女ら | kanojo-ra | They |
Possessive Pronouns In Japanese
In order to make Japanese possessive pronouns, add the suffix の (no) to the pronouns.
| Kanji | Romaji | Meaning |
| 私の | watashi no | mine |
| 貴方の | anata no | yours |
| 彼の | kare no | his |
| 彼女の | kanojo no | hers |
| 私達の | watashi-tachi no | ours |
| 彼らの | kare-ra no | theirs |
Reflective Pronouns
In order to make Japanese reflexive pronouns or intensive forms, add the suffix 自身 (jishin) to the pronouns.
| Kanji | Romaji | Meaning |
| 私自身 | watashi jishin | myself |
| 貴自身 | anata jishin | yourself |
| 彼自身 | kare jishin | himself |
| 彼女自身 | kanojo jishin | herself |
| 私達自身 | watashi-tachi jishin | ourselves |
| 彼ら自身 | kare-ra jishin | themselves |
Japanese Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns in Japanese are always written in hiragana. It is a relief that Japanese demonstrative pronouns are easy to remember since they are categorized in groups depending on their level of distance from the speaker or listener. Words that begin with:
- こ (ko-) indicate something close to the speaker.
- そ (so-) indicate some distance from the speaker or something close to the listener.
- あ (a-) indicate a far distance.
| Hiragana | Romaji | Meaning |
| これ | kore | this |
| それ | sore | it |
| あれ | are | that |
| これら | kore-ra | these |
| それら / あれら | sore-ra / are-ra | those |
| ここ | koko | here |
| そこ | soko | there |
| あそこ | asoko | over there |
Japanese Interrogative Pronouns
Most of the Japanese interrogative pronouns begin with ど (do-) or だ (da-). Also, we have a detailed post about Japanese question words you can check this out!
| Kanji | Hiragana | Romaji | Meaning |
| 何 | なに | nani | what |
| どの / どれ | dono / dore | which | |
| 誰 | だれ | dare | who |
| 誰に | だれに | dare ni | whom |
| 誰の | だれの | dare no | whose |
| いつ | itsu | when | |
| なぜ | naze | why |
Japanese Indefinite Pronouns
In the Japanese language, ‘everyone/everybody’ and ‘anyone/anybody’ is both translated as 誰でも (dare demo) in most contexts.
In a negative sentence using indefinite pronouns such as ‘no one/nobody,’ ‘nowhere,’ and ‘nothing,’ a negative form is usually formed with も…ない (…mo…nai …).
| Kanji | Hiragana | Romaji | Meaning |
| 皆 | みんな | minna | everyone |
| どこでも | doko demo | everywhere | |
| 全て | すべて | subete | everything |
| 誰か | だれか | dare ka | someone |
| どこか | doko ka | somewhere | |
| 何か | なにか | nani ka | something |
| 誰も…ない | だれも…ない | dare mo…nai | no one / nobody |
| どこにも…ない | doko ni mo…nai | nowhere | |
| 何も…ない | なにも…ない | nani mo…nai | nothing |
| 誰でも | だれでも | dare demo | anyone / anybody |
| どこでも | doko demo | anywhere | |
| 何でも | なんでも | nan demo | anything |
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