70 Common Japanese Onomatopoeia and How to Use Them (With Audio)

Woof, roar, tick-tock, ding-dong, whoosh, BOOM!

All of these are examples of onomatopoeia, or words that imitate the sound it describes.

In Japanese, onomatopoeia is known as 擬音語  (ぎおんご).

This post will give you a complete rundown on Japanese onomatopoeia— the five types, 70 useful onomatopoeia words, how the words are used in everyday Japanese and more.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Are The 5 Types of Japanese Onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia can be broken into five different groups:

擬声語 (ぎせいご) — Giseigo
These are sounds made by living things like birds tweeting or children laughing.

擬音語 (ぎおんご) — Giongo
These are sounds made by inanimate objects such as airplanes or creaky doors.

擬態語 (ぎたいご) — Gitaigo
These are words that depict emotions or bodily feelings, like the sound of someone growing angry or the sound of your stomach growling.

擬容語 (ぎようご) — Giyougo
These are sounds that describe movement.

擬情語 (ぎじょうご) — Gijougo
These are words that describe feelings and emotions.

Usually, onomatopoeia that mimics a sound is written in katakana.

For example, ワンワン (woof woof), ケロケロ (ribbit ribbit) and ドカン (boom!) are all written in katakana.

Onomatopoeia that mimics actions, emotions, psychological or physical states of being is usually written in hiragana.

わくわく (to get nervous or excited with anticipation), ねばねば (to be sticky) and きらきら (to shine, sparkle and glisten), for instance, are seen in hiragana.

But this isn’t a strict rule, and depending on the writer, any onomatopoeia can appear in hiragana or katakana.

Every onomatopoeia is broken into three basic forms:

Double Form: にこにこ (niko niko)

-と Form: にこっと (nikotto)

-り Form: にこり (nikori)

Using onomatopoeia in sentences will appear in one of these forms.

But not all onomatopoeia can take every one of these forms (it may only use two), and their meaning can change slightly depending on the one it’s in.

Additionally, some words look like onomatopoeia but are not. When in doubt, always double-check!

NihongoResources and Tangorin (my personal favorite) are awesome dictionaries that you can use to look up different onomatopoeia.

Animal and Human Onomatopoeia — Giseigo ( 擬声語 )

Animals

People

Inanimate Objects Onomatopoeia — Giongo ( 擬音語 )

Emotions or Bodily Feelings Onomatopoeia — Gitaigo ( 擬態語 )

Movement Onomatopoeia — Giyougo ( 擬容語 )

Feelings and Emotions Onomatopoeia — Gijougo (擬情語)

How to Use Japanese Onomatopoeia

Japanese onomatopoeia is used in everyday conversation and is a great way to mix up your vocabulary and impress your friends.

Onomatopoeia helps convey a clearer message of what you’re trying to say by attaching itself to a verb.

Take the verb, “笑う“ (to laugh) for example. A loud, boisterous laugh is “ げらげら .” So to express loud laughter, or laughing out loud, we can say “ げらげら笑う! “

You can also slightly change the meaning of an onomatopoeia depending on what form it’s in or the word it’s attached to. For example:

うとうと眠る — to have a nap

うとうとする — to fall into a sleep

うとうとと眠る — to doze off to sleep

Lastly, some onomatopoeia must be used with the participle と (a particle that quotes a thought, sound or speech), such as these:

彼女は「好きです」と言った — She said, “I like it.”

彼は「ダメだ」と言った — He said, “No.”

今はすやすやと静かな寝息を立てている — Now they are sleeping soundly.

Take a look at these examples where Japanese onomatopoeia is used in common conversation:

日本語がぺらぺらになりたい — I want to become fluent in Japanese
彼女はフランス語がぺらぺらです — She is fluent in French

お腹がぺこぺこです — I’m starved
朝ご飯から何も食べてなくて、お腹がぺこぺこだよ — I haven’t eaten since breakfast, so I’m really hungry

As you can see from the last two examples, ぺこぺこ  doesn’t have a direct translation like “starving” or “hungry.” Rather, it can mean both based on the context.

The same applies here:

彼女は彼をみてわくわくした — She was excited to see him
新しい仕事にわくわくしている — I’m thrilled with my new job

彼らはラブラブのカップルだ — They’re a lovey-dovey couple
今、二人はラブラブだ — Now they’re deeply in love

Since Japanese onomatopoeia is very context-based, the best way to learn new onomatopoeia and become good at using them is to immerse yourself in Japanese content.

You can do this easily by reading manga, talking to a language partner and/or using an immersion-based language learning program like FluentU.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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Now that you’ve seen onomatopoeia, it’s just begging to be used in conversation.

Japanese onomatopoeia is used daily, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for it in your favorite manga, Japanese dramas and classic films. Or better yet, try to slip some into a conversation!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

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FluentU has a broad range of contemporary videos as you'll see below:

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And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.

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