{"id":5286,"date":"2022-09-16T21:57:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T21:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2022-09-16T21:57:34","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T21:57:34","slug":"oyasumi-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/oyasumi-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Oyasumi \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wishing someone a pleasant night is polite and caring. However, it can get pretty routine after a time. Do you want a new, interesting way to say \u201cgoodnight\u201d to your friends? Or maybe you\u2019re visiting someone\u2019s house, it\u2019s getting late, and you\u2019re getting ready to leave, and you want to know what to say when you do? Perhaps you are in Japan on vacation and want to politely bid your host goodnight. In that case, \u201coyasumi\u201d is the word for you. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Translated from Japanese, \u201coyasumi\u201d means \u201cgoodnight\u201d. It\u2019s what you say to someone when you are about to go to sleep, or you may use it when you are saying \u201cgoodbye\u201d to someone at night. It is typically used only after 8 pm or after sundown in traditional Japanese culture. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is typically used as a more polite way of saying \u201cgoodnight\u201d or excusing oneself from another\u2019s house. You can use this with people your own age, or people that you look up to or that may have a higher status than you do. Though it is not entirely formal, it is not as common as many other phrases for \u201cgoodnight\u201d are.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to say &quot;Good night&quot; in Japanese!? - OYASUMI!\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BCjYVTyPfsU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen title=\"How to say \"Good night\" in Japanese!? - OYASUMI!\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m about to go to bed. Oyasumi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was so nice to see you. I\u2019ll come visit again soon. Oyasumi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll see you tomorrow. Oyasumi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you so much for inviting us, Oyasumi, until tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am so tired, Oyasumi, have lovely dreams\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>This phrase came from Japanese culture, but the actual origin of the word is not entirely known. It is believed that the phrase was derived from certain Japanese characters, in which \u201co\u201d and \u201cyasumi\u201d were put together. In this way, the \u201co\u201d was an honorific prefix used to signalize the formality of the phrase, while \u201cyasumi\u201d means \u201crest\u201d or \u201cbreak\u201d. Putting those two phrases together, the term \u201coyasumi\u201d began to be used as a formal way to say \u201cgoodnight\u201d when going to bed or leaving someone else\u2019s house at night.<\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to Oyasumi<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cOyasuminasai\u201d, which is the more formal version of \u201coyasumi\u201d and still means \u201cgoodnight\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYukkuri o yasumi\u201d, which translates to \u201csleep tight\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Phrases Opposite to Oyasumi<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Good morning.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cOhayo\u201d, which translates to \u201cgood morning\u201d in Japanese.<\/li>\n<li>Hi\/hello\/etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cOyasumi\u201d \u2013 \u201cGoodnight\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ways People May Incorrectly Say Oyasumi<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOyasumi\u201d is used to say \u201cgoodnight\u201d when going to bed or leaving someone\u2019s house for the evening. As such, using this term to mean anything other than that would be incorrect. For example, you could not use \u201coyasumi\u201d to say \u201cgood morning\u201d because that is the opposite of what it means. So, \u201coyasumi, you\u2019re up early\u201d would be incorrect.<\/p>\n<p>Further, you would not use the phrase if you are just entering someone\u2019s home, or if you are leaving their home but it is not nighttime. This may sound like, \u201coyasumi, it\u2019s good to see you\u201d or \u201cI should be heading out, I have to make lunch soon. Oyasumi\u201d. Both of these phrases would be incorrect, as these are examples of the wrong context in which you would use this word.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase Oyasumi<\/h2>\n<p>You may use \u201coyasumi\u201d to say goodnight to someone when you are going to bed. This could sound like, \u201cit\u2019s getting late. I should head to bed. Oyasumi\u201d or \u201cit\u2019s almost midnight. I should get some rest. Oyasumi\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>If you were to use \u201coyasumi\u201d as a way to tell someone goodnight when leaving their house in the evening, you may say, \u201cthank you for dinner. Oyasumi\u201d or \u201cI should be getting home, but we should do this again soon. Oyasumi\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Other examples are:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Oyasuminasai, you are very kind for allowing us to visit your home today.<\/li>\n<li>Oyasumi father, I will see you in the morning before school.<\/li>\n<li>Have a safe trip and oyasumi teacher!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Wishing someone a pleasant night is polite and caring. However, it can get pretty routine after a time. Do you want a new, interesting way to say \u201cgoodnight\u201d to your friends? Or maybe you\u2019re visiting someone\u2019s house, it\u2019s getting late, and you\u2019re getting ready to leave, and you want to know what to say when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5629,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions\/5629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}