8 Ways to Say "I" in Japanese | First Person Pronouns (Don't just use watashi)

don't just use Watashi if you really

want to sound like a native speaker

because native Japanese speaker usually

use two three or even more first person

pronoun to say I my me myself hey guys

it's sayaka welcome to newhongo dexta

I've seen a lot of Japanese Learners

only using Watashi as their first person

pronoun but in Japanese there are many

variations of that and just like I said

in the beginning of this video a single

person can use two three four or even

more first person pronouns depending on

four elements the relationship with the

person you are talking to in what

situation you're in your identity and

generation and after watching this video

You're gonna be able to decide which

first person pronoun to use when so

without any further Ado let's get

started so we're gonna go over eight

most commonly used ones and the very

first one will be of course Watashi this

is the very first first person pronoun

you introduce a Most Japanese textbooks

and the formality is igami both formal

and Casual what is used in formal

settings it's used by both men and women

and it's gender neutral however when

it's in casual settings it's only used

by women because it carries some

feminine Impressions Japanese people

change their first person pronoun as

they grow up because the situation

you're put into changes over time right

for example if you are 10 years old

you're going to school you see your

teachers classmates and your family

so you're not really in the business

setting you don't have to use really

formal language so Men start using

Watashi when they are first put into the

business settings after graduating

school that's the formality that it

carries so it's used in formal business

meetings or meeting clients the next one

is Apache

yes it sounds really similar to Watashi

it's the broken version of Watashi and

much more casual than what does she out

say it's used by young women most of the

time in the old days male Craftsmen and

Merchants used to use this in like

around Tokyo area because of that

Japanese traditional comic storytellers

still use this as their first person

pronoun in their story

storytelling next one is

and this is casual and used by young

girls most of the time it used to be

used in around Osaka area only but

around 80s to 90s there were a lot of

female anime characters using Uchi as

their first person pronoun and it's

spread all over Japan like for example

uruse

and I used to use it when I was in

elementary school to around High

school-ish I don't remember exactly the

reason why is it doesn't sound as

feminine as atashi or Watashi and those

age like puberty age they are still in

the face of developing their identity

right so what I went through personally

is I used to call myself

with my own nickname which I will talk

about later but from sayajan to shifting

to another first person parallel I

wasn't too confident enough to say

Watashi or atashi and I was too shy to

call myself Watashi but Uchi is less

feminine so I chose Uchi as my first

person pronoun but eventually I changed

my pronoun to Watashi

around the university because

Uchi sounded a bit more like you know as

I said it's used by young girls so it

carries that impression as well so now

you might be wondering what guys use

then the first one for guys is

and this is the most common first person

pronoun amount of men in casual settings

it sounds very masculine sometimes a

little aggressive and a little cocky in

my opinion it carries the impression of

someone who speaks English like hey dude

yo bro what's up but remember this is

very very casual and guys usually use

Oreo when they are speaking to someone

in their age group or younger fun fact

is the kanji ore is added to joyo kanji

a list of commonly used kanji was just

2010 2010 because it said that it lacks

Elegance so they were hesitant to add

the kanji and he actually has a rich

history with this word in Kamakura era

it was actually the second person

pronoun but as it spread to other

regions it became first person pronoun

for some reason and in Edo era both men

and women animal or using ore as their

first person pronoun regardless of their

status in the society and in mange era

women started using order less as their

first person pronoun however it was

stuck in pokai region which is where I

lived like Nagoya

miehu area a few women senior women

still use audit as their first person

pronoun but there's something that I

want you guys to remember especially if

you're a beginners if you're in the

beginner stage of learning Japanese ore

is not really recommended to use until

you're really confident to form a

sentence and speak with other people

especially in casual speech because it

carries really really casual impression

and sometimes a little aggressive if you

use ore as your first person pronoun in

the very beginner stage of learning

Japanese it might sound a little off or

it like your first pronoun and how you

speak don't really give the same

impression to Japanese people so now the

next one for guys is

it is used in casual settings and also I

would say spend my formal situations

carries an impression of good boy it

sounds more modest and gentle and

Carries less masculinity than ore and

it's used by people in wide age range in

casual settings you can call yourself

Boku especially when you're meeting

someone for the first time and you

haven't really built the relationship

with a person you might want to

represent yourself as book because you

know good boy it's also used in

semi-formal situations what I mean by

semi-formal situation is for example you

want to talk to your colleagues like

senior colleagues or your managers you

see often so you have already built

relationship with them but you don't

want to sound too casual

then that's when you want to use book

and there are two fun facts about this

vocal is used as second person Pearl now

when talking to little boys if you don't

know their names like maybe they're lost

on the street and you want to talk to

them and help them you don't know their

names right so you can say

are you okay little boy

so that's when Boku is used as a second

person pronoun and the history behind

your book is really interesting too in

heian Era this kanji was actually read

as yatsugare yatsu got it and originally

it meant servants and used as a very

humble term and by the time of Meiji era

it was already pronounced as Boku and

used mostly among students who were also

servants and as they started using it it

spread to the public

and you might be wondering so is there

anything that is casual and also gender

neutral the thing is there's not

complete gender neutral one but this

might be the one that is most gender

neutral in casual settings which is

used in casual too against the mindful

more situation and used by both men and

women but I'm gonna explain that more

given sounds really calm and disciplined

and most of the time it's used by

athletic people in Japanese

when Japanese people here

we associate them with having good

manner and very polite because in

Japanese culture if you are in the

sports club you learn good manner and

politeness very strictly especially if

you're in school sports club another

reason is after Mage era Imperial

Japanese Army used to use jibun as their

first person pronoun it was actually

actually recommended to use so that's

also where the impression is coming from