ありがとう

Alternative forms

 * (very colloquial)

Etymology
Phonetic shift: →  →.

From, the adverbial form of and Classical Japanese adjective ,   from.

Modern Japanese -i adjectives formerly ended in -ki for the attributive form. This medial dropped out during the, both for the attributive form (-ki becoming -i) and for the adverbial form (-ku becoming -u). However, the adverbial form reverted back to -ku thereafter for most words, with the -u ending persisting in certain everyday set expressions, such as arigatō,, or , and in hyper-formal speech.

Arigatashi is first attested in the oldest literature of the 8th century. It originally meant “difficult to exist, hard to be”,  shifting to “rare, special”, and then to “welcome, thankful, nice to have” by some time in the 15th century. This sense is still in use:

Any resemblance to 🇨🇬 is purely coincidental. The Portuguese first arrived in Japan in 1543, well over a century after citations expressing gratitude are found.

Pronunciation




Interjection

 * : thank you

Usage notes

 * Most often written in hiragana. May occasionally be seen spelled in kanji as or, generally for more formal writing.
 * The full form is . May also or alternatively be preceded by intensifier, or . Expressions of thanks are given below in rough order of casual to polite.
 * It can be preceded by to show the action to be thanked.