How do you say "eat" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "eat" is 食べる (taberu). It is a verb pronounced "tah-beh-roo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

食べる is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as taberu, it sounds roughly like "tah-beh-roo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

彼は上手に食べます。

Kare wa jouzu ni tabemasu.

He to eats well.

Usage notes

食べる means to eat in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (食べます) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

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Questions about 食べる

How do you pronounce 食べる?

食べる is romanised as taberu. Say it roughly like "tah-beh-roo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 食べる formal or casual?

食べる 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 食べる written in Japanese?

食べる 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.