JLPT N5 Vocabulary List

What JLPT N5 covers

Almost all of the N5 vocabulary is everyday, practical language. You will learn greetings and self-introductions, family members, numbers and counters, days and times, common food and drink, colours, and the verbs that come up constantly, like to eat, to drink, to go, to come, to see, and to do. Most words are written in hiragana or in a handful of simple kanji such as 日, 人, 月, 学 and 食. All told it is the smallest vocabulary load of any level, around 800 words and about 100 kanji.

Grammar and particles at this level

N5 grammar is mostly about putting together a basic, polite sentence. You meet the core particles は, が, を, に, で and へ, the polite です and ます endings, simple questions with か, and how to say that something exists with あります and います. At this stage it stays concrete: stating facts, asking simple questions, and describing what is around you.

How to study N5

If you are starting from scratch, it helps to learn hiragana and katakana first, since the N5 word list is written with them throughout. After that, plain repetition goes a long way at this level. These are high-frequency words, so you will run into them again and again as soon as you start reading or listening to real Japanese.

Planning to sit the N5 exam? Test dates, fees, and registration for your country are on the official JLPT website.

All N5 words

Other JLPT levels

JLPT N5 questions