Vocabulary (JLPT N5)

600 words · 30 sets · CC BY-SA 4.0 · EN

The N5 words, grouped the way a lesson groups them — the family on one sheet, the clock on another, twenty verbs of the daily routine on a third — not alphabetically. Each set is two printed pages: the words with readings and meanings and a line to write each, then the same twenty asked back from memory in both directions. Page 1 is page 2's answer key.

Use it alongside N5 kanji (level C) and N5 grammar (level D). The kanji sheets teach the characters; these teach the words the characters are used in; the reading passages put all three together. There is no official JLPT list — this one is ours, hand-checked, and the whole 600 are on one page if you want to search it.

Full list, all 600 words → Next level: N4 vocabulary (800) → Sets print at two pages each; the list is one long page.

Print a set that belongs together

V1 Greetings and set phrases · 20 おはようございます・こんにちは・こんばんは・おやすみなさい・さようなら・ありがとうございます・どういたしまして・… The twenty phrases you will say before you can make a single sentence — and the ones Japanese people will say to you. V2 Numbers · 20 零・一・二・三・四・五・六・… Zero to ten, then the four words that build every larger number, and the two readings of four, seven and nine. V3 Counting things · 20 一つ・二つ・三つ・四つ・五つ・六つ・七つ・… The native numbers ひとつ to とお, which count almost anything, and the ten counters you cannot avoid. V4 The clock and parts of the day · 20 〜時・〜分・半・時間・今・午前・午後・… Telling the time, and the words for morning, noon and night that every appointment is made with. V5 Days, weeks, months, years · 20 月曜日・火曜日・水曜日・木曜日・金曜日・土曜日・日曜日・… The seven days, and the pattern last / this / next that works for weeks, months and years alike. V6 Family · 20 家族・父・母・お父さん・お母さん・両親・兄・… Two words for every relative — the plain one for your own family, the polite one for somebody else's. V7 People · 20 私・僕・あなた・彼・彼女・人・男・… I, you, and the people you meet in the first month — teachers, students, friends, and the words for men and women. V8 This, that, which · 20 これ・それ・あれ・どれ・この・その・あの・… The こ・そ・あ・ど system on one sheet — near me, near you, over there, and the question — for things, places and directions. V9 At home · 20 家・うち・部屋・玄関・台所・お風呂・トイレ・… Rooms, doors, windows and the furniture — the nouns of the place you spend most of your day. V10 Everyday objects · 20 本・ノート・鉛筆・ペン・消しゴム・辞書・新聞・… What is in your bag and on your desk — the things you will be asked to hand over, look for and lose. V11 Clothes · 20 服・洋服・シャツ・ズボン・スカート・上着・コート・… What you wear, and the three different verbs Japanese uses for putting it on. V12 Body and health · 20 体・頭・顔・目・耳・鼻・口・… Head to foot, plus the ten words you need at a pharmacy or a doctor's. V13 Food and drink · 20 食べ物・飲み物・ご飯・朝ご飯・昼ご飯・晩ご飯・パン・… Meals, the basic ingredients, and what to order — the words on a Japanese table. V14 Eating out · 20 レストラン・食堂・喫茶店・メニュー・お弁当・りんご・みかん・… Restaurants, the dishes everyone tries first, and the things on the table you will need to ask for. V15 Around town · 20 町・駅・銀行・郵便局・病院・図書館・公園・… The buildings you ask directions to — station, bank, post office, hospital — and the words for the streets between them. V16 Getting around · 20 電車・地下鉄・バス・タクシー・自転車・車・飛行機・… Trains, buses, tickets, airports — and the verbs for getting on and off. V17 Nature and weather · 20 天気・雨・雪・風・晴れ・曇り・空・… Sky, sea, mountains and the four seasons, plus the small talk about the weather that opens most conversations. V18 School and study · 20 学校・大学・教室・授業・宿題・テスト・質問・… Classroom nouns and the words a teacher uses every lesson — question, answer, homework, test. V19 Work and free time · 20 仕事・会議・買い物・掃除・散歩・音楽・歌・… What people do on weekdays and what they do at the weekend — the nouns behind "what do you do?" V20 Verbs 1: the daily routine · 20 起きる・寝る・食べる・飲む・見る・聞く・読む・… Get up, eat, go, come home, sleep — the twenty verbs that describe an ordinary day, in dictionary form. V21 Verbs 2: doing things · 20 する・作る・出す・入れる・開ける・閉める・取る・… Open, close, put in, take out, lend, borrow — verbs that come in pairs, learned as pairs. V22 Verbs 3: movement and things that happen · 20 出る・入る・歩く・走る・泳ぐ・飛ぶ・登る・… Go in and out, walk, run, swim, cross, turn, stop — and the verbs for weather, birth and death. V23 Verbs 4: saying, playing, everyday actions · 20 言う・呼ぶ・頼む・答える・遊ぶ・歌う・吸う・… Say, call, ask, answer, play, sing — and the small physical verbs (push, pull, cut, wash) that fill instructions. V24 い-adjectives 1: size, distance, price · 20 大きい・小さい・新しい・古い・高い・安い・低い・… Big and small, near and far, expensive and cheap — the adjectives that come in opposite pairs, on one sheet as pairs. V25 い-adjectives 2: feelings, weather, taste · 20 暑い・寒い・熱い・冷たい・暖かい・涼しい・明るい・… Hot and cold (two kinds of each), fun and boring, easy and hard — the adjectives you use about your day. V26 い-adjectives 3: describing people and things · 20 若い・強い・弱い・優しい・汚い・丸い・太い・… Young and old, strong and weak, kind, clean, dirty, round, thick, thin — and the six colour adjectives. V27 な-adjectives · 20 好き・嫌い・上手・下手・静か・賑やか・便利・… The adjectives that take な before a noun — quiet, lively, famous, convenient, and the big four: like, dislike, good at, bad at. V28 Colours and shapes · 20 色・白・黒・赤・青・黄色・緑・… The colour nouns, which is what you use for "the red one" — the adjective forms are on the い-adjectives sheet — and the basic shapes. V29 Adverbs and connectors · 20 とても・少し・ちょっと・よく・まだ・もう・すぐ・… Very, a little, already, still, soon, together — and the words that join one sentence to the next. V30 Position and direction · 20 上・下・中・外・前・後ろ・右・… On, under, in front, behind, left, right, next to — the words that answer "where is it?"

How the sets were chosen

The JLPT has not published a vocabulary list since the 2010 revision, so every "N5 list" online is a reconstruction. Ours takes the ~600 words that appear on almost all of them and drops the ones that appear on only one. Every word is in exactly one set, so printing all thirty sheets is the whole list once, with no repeats. Readings are in kana; the full list adds Hepburn romaji for absolute beginners.

A word is written in kanji where a Japanese adult would write it that way and the kanji is N5 or N4 — 学校, 食べる — and in kana where it usually is: これ, とても, ありがとうございます. The sheet tells you to write in kana if you cannot yet write the kanji, and means it.