How do you say "swim" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "swim" is 泳ぐ (oyogu). It is a verb pronounced "oh-yoh-goo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

泳ぐ is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as oyogu, it sounds roughly like "oh-yoh-goo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

週末に泳ぎますつもりです。

Shuumatsu ni oyogimasu tsumori desu.

I plan to to swim this weekend.

Usage notes

泳ぐ means to swim in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (泳ぎます) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

Related words

Curated by Callan Ratcliffe

Practice 泳ぐ and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 泳ぐ

How do you pronounce 泳ぐ?

泳ぐ is romanised as oyogu. Say it roughly like "oh-yoh-goo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 泳ぐ formal or casual?

泳ぐ 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 泳ぐ written in Japanese?

泳ぐ 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.