The Difference Between Spoken and Written Japanese

09/06/20231 min read

Translated from the Vietnamese original. View the original.

The difference between spoken and written Japanese

Japanese in speech and in writing

How do written and spoken Japanese differ in parts of speech

Part of speech	Spoken	Written	Meaning
副詞 (adverbs)	しっかり	十分に	Surely
	ほとんど	ほぼ	Almost all
	全部	全て	All / entirely
	全然	全く	Completely
	最も	より	More
	はっきり	明確に	Clearly
	どんどん	急速に	Gradually
	だんだん	徐々に／次第に	Gradually
	たくさん	多く／～が多い	A lot
	やっぱり	やはり	Clearly / indeed
	いつも	常に	Usually
	とても	大変	Very
	ちょっと	少し	A little
	ちゃんと	きちんと／正しく	Carefully / thoroughly
	だいたい	約／およそ	About / approximately
疑問詞 (question words)	どんな	どのような	How
	どうして／なんで	なぜ	Why
	どっち	どちら／いずれ	Which direction
接続詞 (conjunctions)	～だけ	～が	But (contrasting two clauses in one sentence)
	～から	～ため	Because
	～たら	～ば／～と	If
	でも	しかし	However (contrasting two sentences)
	ですから	そのため／したがて	Therefore / so
Other	～とか	～や	And
	なんか	など	Etc.
	色んな	色々な／様々な	A lot