How do you say "climb up" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "climb up" is 登る (noboru). It is a verb pronounced "noh-boh-roo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

登る is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as noboru, it sounds roughly like "noh-boh-roo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

子供たちは登りますのが楽しそうです。

Kodomotachi wa noborimasu no ga tanoshisou desu.

The children seem to enjoy climb uping.

Usage notes

登る means to climb up in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (登ります) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

Related words

Curated by Jack Ratcliffe

Practice 登る and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 登る

How do you pronounce 登る?

登る is romanised as noboru. Say it roughly like "noh-boh-roo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 登る formal or casual?

登る is the plain (dictionary) form, used in casual speech and in dictionaries. For polite situations, verbs take a different ending, typically -masu. In Noun Town the game always shows the dictionary form.

How is 登る written in Japanese?

登る is written using kanji and hiragana. 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.