How do you say "fly" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "fly" is 飛ぶ (tobu). It is a verb pronounced "toh-boo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

飛ぶ is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as tobu, it sounds roughly like "toh-boo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

彼は上手に飛びます。

Kare wa jouzu ni tobimasu.

He to flys well.

Usage notes

飛ぶ means to fly in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (飛びます) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

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Questions about 飛ぶ

How do you pronounce 飛ぶ?

飛ぶ is romanised as tobu. Say it roughly like "toh-boo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 飛ぶ formal or casual?

飛ぶ 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 飛ぶ written in Japanese?

飛ぶ 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.