In my first month in Osaka I put sugar in my host family's miso soup. Not on purpose. The salt and sugar lived in two identical white canisters next to the stove, each labeled in kanji I couldn't read yet. I picked the wrong one. My host brother tasted it, made a face I still remember, and then very patiently pointed at each canister and said 砂糖 (satō), 塩 (shio). I've never confused those two kanji since.
That's the kind of word this lesson is about. Kitchen vocabulary isn't glamorous, but it's the stuff on labels, in recipes, and in every "can you grab the..." request you'll ever hear in a Japanese home. It also happens to be the perfect place to learn one of the most important grammar patterns in beginner Japanese: how to say where something is.
This is Part 3 of the series. Part 2 covered eating out. Now we're cooking at home.
The kitchen itself
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 台所 | daidokoro | kitchen | The everyday native word |
| 冷蔵庫 | reizōko | refrigerator | Literally "cold storage warehouse" |
| テーブル | tēburu | table | The one you eat at |
| 箱 | hako | box | Cereal boxes, bento boxes, takeout boxes |
| キッチン | kitchin | kitchen | Loanword, not N5. Common in apartment listings |
You'll also hear キッチン (kitchin), the katakana loanword. It isn't on the N5 list, and it's what you'll see in real-estate listings and modern apartment descriptions. 台所 sounds a little more homey and traditional. Both are completely normal.
冷蔵庫 is a mouthful, but it's one of the most useful nouns in the house. The kanji break down nicely: 冷 (cold), 蔵 (storehouse), 庫 (warehouse). Japanese has a lot of words like this, where a long kanji compound is really just three simple ideas stacked together.
Pantry staples
Here are the seasonings and basics from the N5 list. You'll see these words on labels, in recipes, and on shopping lists.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 塩 | shio | salt |
| 砂糖 | satō | sugar |
| しょうゆ | shōyu | soy sauce |
| バター | batā | butter |
| 卵 | tamago | egg |
| 牛乳 | gyūnyū | milk |
| 水 | mizu | water |
| パン | pan | bread |
| 肉 | niku | meat |
| 魚 | sakana | fish |
| 野菜 | yasai | vegetables |
| 果物 | kudamono | fruit |
A few notes on these.
しょうゆ is written in hiragana on the N5 list, but you'll also see it as 醤油 on bottles. Those kanji are hard and not N5, so don't worry about writing them. Just learn to recognize the shape of the label.
牛乳 (gyūnyū) is "cow milk." 牛 is cow, 乳 is milk. You'll also hear ミルク (miruku), especially for milk in coffee. On a milk carton at the store, it's almost always 牛乳.
果物 (kudamono) is an irregular reading. The kanji are 果 (fruit) and 物 (thing), which you'd expect to read kabutsu or similar. It's kudamono. Memorize it as one word.
Where things are: position words
Before the grammar, you need words for positions. These are all N5, and they work like nouns.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 中 | naka | inside |
| 上 | ue | on top of, above |
| 下 | shita | under, below |
| 前 | mae | in front of |
| 後ろ | ushiro | behind |
| 隣 | tonari | next to |
| 横 | yoko | beside |
To use them, link them to the object with の (no), the possessive particle:
- 冷蔵庫の中 (reizōko no naka): inside the fridge
- テーブルの上 (tēburu no ue): on the table
- テーブルの下 (tēburu no shita): under the table
- 塩の隣 (shio no tonari): next to the salt
English says "inside the fridge." Japanese says "the fridge's inside." Once you think of 中 and 上 as places that belong to something, the の makes sense.
The pattern: place に thing があります
Here's the sentence for "there is something somewhere":
冷蔵庫の中に卵があります。 (Reizōko no naka ni tamago ga arimasu.) There are eggs in the fridge.
Break it down:
- 冷蔵庫の中 (reizōko no naka): inside the fridge. The place.
- に (ni): marks where something exists.
- 卵 (tamago): eggs. The thing.
- が (ga): marks the thing that exists.
- あります (arimasu): there is, exists. Polite form of ある (aru).
Notice Japanese doesn't care about singular and plural. 卵があります can mean "there's an egg" or "there are eggs." Context fills it in.
Flipping it around: thing は place にあります
When you already know what you're talking about and want to know where it is, flip the order and use は (wa):
砂糖はどこにありますか。 (Satō wa doko ni arimasu ka.) Where's the sugar?
砂糖は塩の隣にあります。 (Satō wa shio no tonari ni arimasu.) The sugar is next to the salt.
The difference is about what's new information. "There are eggs in the fridge" introduces the eggs, so they get が. "The sugar is next to the salt" is about sugar we already know about, so it gets は. If that feels subtle, don't stress. Start with the two patterns as fixed templates and the feel for it comes with time.
あります or います?
Japanese has two verbs for "there is." あります (arimasu) is for things that don't move on their own: food, furniture, boxes. います (imasu) is for people and animals.
- 台所に母がいます。 (Daidokoro ni haha ga imasu.) My mom is in the kitchen.
- 台所に砂糖があります。 (Daidokoro ni satō ga arimasu.) There's sugar in the kitchen.
Here's the fun one. A fish in a tank gets います, because it's alive and moving. A fish in your fridge gets あります. It's food now. Japanese speakers make this switch without thinking, and once you start noticing it, it's a little darkly funny.
- 魚がいます。 There's a fish (swimming).
- 冷蔵庫に魚があります。 There's fish in the fridge.
Saying there's nothing
The negative of あります is ありません (arimasen).
牛乳がありません。 (Gyūnyū ga arimasen.) There's no milk. / We're out of milk.
And to say there's nothing at all, use 何も (nanimo) with the negative:
冷蔵庫の中に何もありません。 (Reizōko no naka ni nanimo arimasen.) There's nothing in the fridge.
Notice 何も replaces both the thing and the が. You don't say 何もが. Every university student in Japan has said this sentence at least once.
Bonus: putting things in and taking them out
Three kitchen verbs from the N5 list pair perfectly with this vocabulary. We'll use them more in Part 7, but here's a preview:
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 入れる | ireru | to put in | 牛乳を冷蔵庫に入れます。 I put the milk in the fridge. |
| 出す | dasu | to take out | 卵を冷蔵庫から出します。 I take the eggs out of the fridge. |
| 置く | oku | to put, to place | お皿をテーブルの上に置きます。 I put the plate on the table. |
Here に marks where something goes, and から (kara) marks where it comes from.
More words from this lesson
Every other word that came up in this lesson, in one place. 母, 父, and ミルク aren't N5 words, but they're everyday ones.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ある | aru | to exist (things); polite あります |
| いる | iru | to exist (people, animals); polite います |
| どこ | doko | where |
| 母 | haha | my mother |
| 父 | chichi | my father |
| お菓子 | okashi | sweets, snacks |
| ミルク | miruku | milk (often for coffee) |
Practice exercises
Tap each one to check your answer.
Fill in the particles
冷蔵庫の中___卵___あります。
に, が. 冷蔵庫の中に卵があります。 There are eggs in the fridge.塩___どこにありますか。
は (wa). 塩はどこにありますか。 Where's the salt?テーブル___上にパンがあります。
の (no). テーブルの上 = on the table.
あります or います?
台所に父が______。 (My dad is in the kitchen.)
います. 父 is a person.箱の中にお菓子が______。 (There are sweets in the box.)
あります. Sweets don't move on their own.冷蔵庫に魚が______。 (There's fish in the fridge.)
あります. It's food now.
Translate into Japanese
There's butter in the fridge.
冷蔵庫(の中)にバターがあります。 (Reizōko (no naka) ni batā ga arimasu.) の中 is optional here.Where's the soy sauce?
しょうゆはどこにありますか。 (Shōyu wa doko ni arimasu ka.)The sugar is next to the salt.
砂糖は塩の隣にあります。 (Satō wa shio no tonari ni arimasu.)There's no milk.
牛乳がありません。 (Gyūnyū ga arimasen.)There's nothing on the table.
テーブルの上に何もありません。 (Tēburu no ue ni nanimo arimasen.)
Reading check
How do you read 果物?
kudamono. An irregular reading, so learn it as one word.Which is salt and which is sugar: 塩, 砂糖?
塩 (shio) is salt. 砂糖 (satō) is sugar. Don't repeat my miso soup mistake.
Where to go from here
Part 4: Japanese Table Words covers いただきます, ごちそうさま, chopsticks, and how to say what you eat with. If you're still building speed with the kana in this lesson, the N5 vocabulary deck in Hirakata lets you drill every N5 word here with furigana.