How do you say "write" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "write" is 書く (kaku). It is a verb pronounced "kah-koo".

Listen to the pronunciation:

Pronunciation

書く is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as kaku, it sounds roughly like "kah-koo" to an English ear.

Example sentence

彼は上手に書きます。

Kare wa jouzu ni kakimasu.

He to writes well.

Usage notes

書く means to write in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (書きます) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.

Related words

Curated by Callan Ratcliffe

Practice 書く and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.

Buy on Steam

Questions about 書く

How do you pronounce 書く?

書く is romanised as kaku. Say it roughly like "kah-koo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is 書く formal or casual?

書く 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 書く written in Japanese?

書く 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.