How do you say "student" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "student" is 学生 (gakusei). It is a noun.

Listen to the pronunciation:

Illustration of student from Noun Town

Pronunciation

学生 is written in kanji. Romanised as gakusei, it sounds roughly like "gah-koo-seh-ee" to an English ear.

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Questions about 学生

How do you pronounce 学生?

学生 is romanised as gakusei. Say it roughly like "gah-koo-seh-ee" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 学生 formal or casual?

学生 is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.

How is 学生 written in Japanese?

学生 is written using kanji. Kanji characters carry the core meaning; any hiragana or katakana that follow show grammatical endings.

This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.