How do you say "volunteer" in Japanese?

In Japanese, "volunteer" is ボランティア (borantia). It is a noun.

Listen to the pronunciation:

Illustration of volunteer from Noun Town

Pronunciation

ボランティア is written in katakana. Romanised as borantia, it sounds roughly like "boh-rah-n-tee-ah" to an English ear.

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Questions about ボランティア

How do you pronounce ボランティア?

ボランティア is romanised as borantia. Say it roughly like "boh-rah-n-tee-ah" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.

Is ボランティア formal or casual?

ボランティア is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.

How is ボランティア written in Japanese?

ボランティア is written using katakana. Katakana is typically used for words of foreign origin or to give emphasis.

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.