How do you say "rest" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "rest" is 休む (yasumu). It is a verb pronounced "yah-soo-moo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

休む is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as yasumu, it sounds roughly like "yah-soo-moo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

週末に休みますつもりです。

Shuumatsu ni yasumimasu tsumori desu.

I plan to to rest this weekend.

Usage notes

休む means to rest in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (休みます) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

Related words

Curated by Jack Ratcliffe

Practice 休む and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 休む

How do you pronounce 休む?

休む is romanised as yasumu. Say it roughly like "yah-soo-moo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 休む formal or casual?

休む 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 休む written in Japanese?

休む 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.