Symphony of Sound: How to Use 75+ Japanese Onomatopoeia Words

56

Wham! Swoosh! Ding ding ding! Onomatopoeia functions as a way to turn sounds into words. While you could say someone “exclaimed in a high-pitched tone,” it rings better in your ears to say they “squealed!” Japanese onomatopoeia works the same way, but with more variety and room for creativity. 

Adding onomatopoeia into conversations and writing adds flavor to your Japanese, and can even help you to sound more fluent. Dive into over 75 sound effects and other verbal imagery below, and as you continue to learn Japanese, keep an eye out for more!

What is onomatopoeia in Japanese?

One word for onomatopoeia in Japanese is the French loanword onomatope (オノマトペ). There are also five specific categories covering different kinds of sound effects, with the most common being giongo (擬音語), giseigo (擬声語), and gitaigo (擬態語). 

• giongo (擬音語): “words mimicking sounds,” or sounds made by objects and found in nature
• giseigo (擬声語): “words mimicking voices,” or sounds made by humans and animals
• gitaigo (擬態語): “words mimicking states,” or verbal imagery related to conditions and states of being
• gijōgo (擬情語): “words mimicking emotion,” or verbal imagery related to feelings
• giyōgo (擬容語): “words mimicking form,” or verbal imagery related to motion

Because the delineation can cause confusion, gijōgo and giyōgo are often included in gitaigo. In other words, gitaigo is a category that covers Japanese onomatopoeia used for description rather than imitating sounds.

The difference between a sound and verbal imagery as mentioned above is that verbal imagery may not sound like it appears in writing. For example, one example of giseigo—a sound made by a person—would be the sound of laughter. In English, this is like writing “haha” or “heehee.” Meanwhile, a classic example of verbal imagery without sound is the gitaigo for silence: shīn (しーん). This is used in writing because otherwise it would be, well, silent!

To see onomatopoeia in action, check out the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, which has an art exhibit all about making onomatope visible. Highlights include:

• A tangled metal sculpture with talk tubes for hisohiso (whisper)
• Smooth, irregular-shaped mounds for tsurutsuru (smooth)
• Giant mushrooms with hammocks for utōto (nodding off)

How to use Japanese onomatopoeia

There are thousands of Japanese onomatopoeia compared to the hundreds of English onomatopoeia. Translating the Japanese precisely can be difficult, and onomatopoeia may appear as anything from sound effects to adverbs to adjectives in English. While there’s room for confusion, this also means that Japanese can boil an entire scene down to one word. 

Using Japanese onomatopoeia with a verb

By using the generic “to do” verb suru (する), Japanese onomatopoeia can function as its own verb. While there may be more effective methods, this is one of the easiest ways to incorporate onomatopoeia into your vocabulary because of how universal suru is.

• Nihon e no ryokō ni wakuwaku shiteimasu!（日本への旅行にわくわくしています！）= I’m excited about my trip to Japan!

Using Japanese onomatopoeia as adverbs

Verbs paint a picture on their own, but by pairing them with related onomatopoeia as adverbs, you can make the verb more precise. Just like other Japanese adverbs, the word can be placed directly in front of the verb with no required additions.

• Akachan wa neta.（赤ちゃんは寝た。）= The baby slept.
• Akachan wa suyasuya neta.（赤ちゃんはすやすや寝た。）= The baby slept soundly.

This works well when describing how someone is laughing using the verb warau (笑う), as shown in these example sentences.

• Kanojo wa kusukusu waratta.（彼女はくすくす笑った。）= She giggled. (Literally: She laughed by giggling.)
• Kare wa geragera waratta.（彼はゲラゲラ笑った。）= He guffawed. (Literally: He laughed by guffawing.)

Using Japanese onomatopoeia by themselves

If you’re using onomatopoeia on its own with no suffixes or other attachments, then it fits in a sentence like a noun or adjective. For example, like Japanese nouns, it may be followed by the “to be” verb:

• 10 kiro aruite kutakuta da yo.（１０キロ歩いてくたくただよ。）= I walked 10 kilometers and I’m completely wiped out.

The lyrics of the opening song from the movie “From Up on Poppy Hill,” “Asagohan no Uta” (“The Breakfast Song”), is a perfect example of this, dropping the verb entirely because it’s understood.

Japanese onomatopoeia list

What are the most useful onomatopoeia for you to know? We’ve compiled a comprehensive Japanese onomatopoeia list of over 75 words you can integrate into your vocabulary today.  

You may notice that the charts include both hiragana and katakana. Most onomatopoeia can be written with either depending on the writer’s preference. Katakana is generally associated with harsher sounds or situations, while hiragana is gentler.

Giongo: Japanese words mimicking sounds

One of the broadest categories, giongo includes onomatopoeia that emit specific sounds. Noises in everyday life like electronic beeping, cars zooming on the highway, and the sounds of natural phenomena are all part of this group of words.

Giseigo: Japanese words mimicking voices

As they also emit clear sounds, giseigo are sometimes categorized under giongo. This creates overlap, but the distinction is minor. The words in this list include exclamations and animal sounds, which fit nicely into dialogue.

Gitaigo: Japanese words describing states and conditions

Gitaigo is another broad category of Japanese onomatopoeia that includes everything that doesn’t have a particular voiced sound. Instead, these words work best as descriptors to paint a more vivid picture in the mind’s eye. Certain words, like kirakira and pikapika, are also generally cute Japanese words to know!

Gijōgo: Japanese words describing emotions

Onomatopoeia that describe emotions are commonly used because they help communicate exactly how someone is feeling. While many gijōgo translate to English as verbs, they work well on their own in Japanese—no verb required!