Konnichiwa Means Good Afternoon in Japanese

If you want to greet someone in Japanese by saying good afternoon or good day, the word you want to use is Konnichiwa.   Konnichiwa is actually a shortened version of a full greeting. Over time, a more slang version of the term evolved in the Japanese language. â€Å"Konnichiwa was once the beginning of a sentence that went, â€Å"konnichi wa gokiken ikaga desu ka?,†Ã‚  or â€Å"How are you feeling today?† (ä »Å Ã¦â€" ¥Ã£  ¯Ã£ â€Ã¦ ©Å¸Ã¥ «Å'㠁„㠁‹ã Å'㠁 §Ã£ â„¢Ã£ â€¹ Writing Rules for Konnichiwa There is a rule for writing hiragana wa and ha. When wa is used as a particle, it is written in hiragana as ha. Konnichiwa is now a fixed greeting. However, in the old days it was a part of sentence, such as Today is ~ (Konnichi wa ~) and wa functioned as a particle. Thats why it is still written in hiragana as ha. The greeting can be changed to good evening, with, â€Å"Konbanwaâ€Å" where â€Å"this evening† is substituted for the word today. (ä »Å Ã¦â„¢ ©Ã£  ¯Ã£ â€Ã¦ ©Å¸Ã¥ «Å'㠁„㠁‹ã Å'㠁 §Ã£ â„¢Ã£ â€¹) Audio File: Listen to the audio file for Konnichiwa. Japanese Characters for Konnichiwa: 㠁“ん㠁 «Ã£  ¡Ã£  ¯Ã£â‚¬â€š More Japanese Greetings: Previous wordNext wordGreetings ArchiveSimple Japanese Phrases Sources: Rocket News 24, http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/04/08/what-does-konichiwa-really-mean-understanding-japanese-greetings/