Basic Japanese greetings: which one to use at each time of day

In Japanese, you do not pick a greeting based on who you are talking to. You pick it based on the clock.

English lets you say “hi” at any hour. Japanese does not work that way. Saying the morning greeting in the afternoon sounds odd, in the same way that “good morning” at 8pm would sound odd in English. Once you connect each phrase to a part of the day, choosing the right one becomes automatic.

By the end of this lesson you will know four greetings and the moment each one belongs to.

The morning greeting

From the time you wake up until roughly late morning, you use おはよう (ohayou).

This short form is friendly and casual. You use it with family, close friends, and classmates.

With a teacher, a manager, a neighbour, or anyone you want to treat politely, you add ございます (gozaimasu):

ございます (gozaimasu) carries no meaning of its own here. It is a politeness marker, and it appears in many polite expressions. Adding it is the difference between greeting a friend and greeting your boss.

If you are unsure which one to use, the polite version is always a safe choice.

Build the polite morning greeting yourself:

The daytime greeting

Once the morning is over, the greeting changes to こんにちは (konnichiwa).

This is the greeting most learners meet first, and it covers the widest part of the day: roughly from late morning until the sun goes down. It works for shopkeepers, strangers, coworkers, and friends alike, so you do not need a separate polite version.

One detail worth noticing: it is written with は, but here は is pronounced wa, not ha. That is the same は (wa) you meet as a grammar particle, kept in this phrase for historical reasons. You can understand that pronunciation in more detail in the lesson about は (wa).

The evening greeting

After dark, use こんばんは (konbanwa).

ばん (ban) refers to the evening, so this greeting is easy to remember once you notice that piece inside it. Like the daytime greeting, it ends with は pronounced wa.

Use it when you arrive somewhere in the evening: entering a restaurant, meeting a friend for dinner, or greeting a neighbour on your way home.

The night phrase

おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai) is different from the other three. It is not a way to say hello.

You say it when someone is going to sleep, or when you part ways late at night. Between family and close friends, the shorter おやすみ (oyasumi) is common.

So the evening greeting opens a conversation, and the night phrase closes the day.

Putting the day in order

Here is the whole set as a timeline:

Time of day	Greeting	Meaning
Waking up until late morning	おはよう (ohayou)	Good morning
Late morning until sunset	こんにちは (konnichiwa)	Hello
After dark	こんばんは (konbanwa)	Good evening
Going to sleep or parting at night	おやすみなさい (oyasuminasai)	Good night

Japanese speakers do not check the exact hour. They follow the feel of the day, so the boundaries are soft. If you greet someone at eleven in the morning, either the morning greeting or the daytime greeting will sound fine.

Only one statement below matches that timeline. Pick the true one:

One phrase people often confuse with a greeting

ありがとう (arigatou) means “thank you”, not “hello”.

It comes after someone helps you, at any hour. Like the morning greeting, it has a polite version, ありがとうございます (arigatou gozaimasu), built with that same ございます (gozaimasu) ending.

It is worth learning next to greetings because you will often use both in the same short exchange: greet the shop assistant when you walk in, thank them when you leave.

Try it today

Look at the time right now and say the greeting that fits, out loud. Then imagine two more moments from your day, morning and evening, and say the matching phrase for each.

Four short phrases cover an entire Japanese day, and time of day is the only thing you need to check.