Japanese Language Nuances: Formal vs Informal Usage

In Japanese, formal and informal speech levels are essential for conveying politeness, respect, and social relationships.

Formal Japanese (often called “teineigo”) is used in polite situations, such as when speaking to strangers, superiors, or in business and official contexts. It includes polite verb endings like -masu and -desu and respectful honorifics. Informal Japanese (called “futsūgo” or plain form) is used among close friends, family, or people of the same or lower social status. It uses plain verb forms and is less rigid in structure.

When to Use Formal Japanese

• Speaking to strangers or acquaintances not well known
• Interacting with superiors, teachers, or elders
• In business settings or official environments
• To show respect or maintain social distance
• In public announcements or media

When to Use Informal Japanese

• Talking with close friends or family
• Casual conversations among peers or people of the same age/status
• Situations where politeness is not required or would feel unnatural
• Relaxed, intimate, or private contexts

Key Points

• Formal language softens requests and statements, showing respect and deference.
• Informal language implies closeness and familiarity but can be rude if used improperly in formal contexts.
• Japanese speakers often switch between formal and informal speech depending on social context, relationship, and the setting.

Understanding the relationship between speaker, listener, and context is crucial for choosing the correct formality level in Japanese communication.

References

• Substitution of Formal and Informal Home Care Service Use and Nursing Home Service Use: Health Outcomes, Decision-Making Preferences, and Implications for a Public Health Policy

• Speech level shift in Japanese and Slovene

• Formal vs. Informal Institutional Distances and the Competitive Advantage of Foreign Subsidiaries in Latin America

• Teachers’ Attitudes towards Teaching in Formal vs. Informal ELT Contexts

• Innovation, formal vs. informal R&D, and firm size: Some evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

• The Effect of Japanese Animation Series on Informal Third Language Acquisition among Arabic Native Speakers

• A Contrastive Analysis of Diglossia in Japanese and Javanese

• The ‘underdog’ informal Vietnamese enterprises: R&D, innovation and productivity performances

• Style Shift to Plain Form in Advanced Learners of Japanese: Focusing on Informal‑Style

• The Internal Structure of Copular Sentences with desu and da in Japanese

• Style-shifting in Usage Instructions of Food, Beverage, and Pharmaceutical Products in Japanese Language

• Controlling Japanese Honorifics in English-to-Japanese Neural Machine Translation

• Machine Translation to Control Formality Features in the Target Language

• TENSES, ASPECTS, AND CAPITAL VERBS IN KAGUYA HIME’S FAIRY TALE「ぐ や 姫 の 物語」BY TAKAHASHI SOUKO

• Japanese Speech Acts and Politeness in Hospitality Services

• The Role of Parental Input in the Early Acquisition of Japanese Politeness Distinctions

• A corpus-assisted analysis of indexical signs for (im)politeness in Japanese apology-like behaviour

• The Informal Structure of Senpai (Seniors), Kohai (Juniors), and Doki (Peers) in Japanese Organizations

• Japanese Directive Speech

• “Aisatsu” in Japanese Language Education