How to translate and learn Japanese using jisho?

Do you know the famous site desu? If you study Japanese, you must understand that the word jisho (辞書) literally means dictionary. The jisho website is one of the most interesting tools for Japanese learners. In this article, we will help you to translate and learn Japanese using jisho.org;

As jisho, you are able to understand the meaning of Japanese ideograms, words, names and even example sentences. The site provides in detail all the readings, meanings and traits of a kanji. You can also draw a kanji or choose radicals to find something you don't know how to write on the keyboard.

The big problem and obstacle for people is that the site is in English. However, it has Spanish and even English translations in a large number of words. Despite the English language, you can easily use google translator without worrying about wrong translations, in this article I will explain why.

Using Jisho to Translate and Learn Japanese

Use the jisho It's simple, just go to the website and type the text you want to translate or find details. It can be in Japanese with kanji, romaji and even in English, the site will recognize the word and present a list of options. To help you learn Japanese using jisho, I made a quick video below:

In addition to the video, let's see some examples of how you can use jisho to translate, learn and study a simple phrase or song lyrics. Below we have the following sentence:

  • 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない

The first thing you should do is select the first kanji (俺) if you don't know its meaning. When playing it in jisho, you will see the meaning of the word and details of the kanji on the side. If you click on the kanji, you will access a page with all the details of this Japanese ideogram.

If you have at least a little knowledge of English, you will know that this ideogram means I (I, me), but if you use google translate, you will see that the site says that this word sounds harsh or arrogant. Next we see the の particle, so just ignore it for now.

Now you can translate the other kanji (妹) which means little sister. You will see the word reading at the top of the kanji, written in hiragana. Be careful when using the translator on pages with very large words, because it may end up changing the kanji hiraganas and leaving the wrong word.

Doing this with all the words and ignoring the particles, we will have the following words:

  • 俺 - I, mine;
  • 妹 - younger sister;
  • こんな - such, like that, in this way
  • 可愛い - cute, adorable, charming;
  • わけがない – there is no way that (expresses that something is impossible);

These are the meanings that jisho presented to us, even using google translate. Don't forget to check the pronunciation of furigana in words with kanji to know how to pronounce or write in romaji. Now let's do as I do when writing articles or breaking up songs, I put the phrase in romanization:

  • 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない
  • Pray no imouto ga konnani kawaii wakeganai

First we have the particle no (の) which indicates possession. So basically we're talking about my sister. If we search for konna(ni) without the particle ni (に) you will find the expression “thus”. Followed by the word cute and adorable and ending as there is no way or impossible.

Everything that came before the が particle is what we're talking about, my sister. Start by reading the sentence behind to better translate it into Portuguese. There's no way / cute adorable / like that. Now we must include my sister in the sentence, which translates to:

  • There's no way (my sister) can be that cute.

How will jisho help you learn Japanese?

You will need to interpret the context of the sentence to arrive at a more logical meaning and a perfect translation. It doesn't matter if you are using google translator to make jisho words in English. The site provides several meanings for the same word, in addition to the English translation being much more accurate.

Also, you will be translating word by word, and only then will you transform the phrase and correctly translate the song. We also recommend putting the Japanese word or kanji in google translator to see more meanings and senses of the word. Japanese is a language full of idioms, making literal and quick translations impossible.

Translating and studying sentences carefully and in detail will help you to memorize Japanese words and expressions in a natural and fun way. Picking up a song and translating it sentence by sentence will have much more results than filling in gaps or reading giant texts.

How to translate and learn Japanese using jisho?

When translating words using jisho, you know several alternatives to the same word, as well as other words with different meanings that use the same ideogram. With just jisho and content in Japanese, your studies can go beyond anything a textbook or teacher.

Of course using jisho will take practice and dedication, you also shouldn't abandon traditional memorization methods. Using jisho can be a fast and slow way to learn Japanese. The goal is to leave it in your hands to meet all your needs when learning nihongo.

Want to further expand your Japanese learning? Read our article that explains how to learn Japanese by producing content (click here). 

Other uses of Jisho

Jisho goes far beyond translating sentences or seeing the meaning of words and kanji. It is a completely complete dictionary that will help you learn Japanese, no matter what level you are at. Below we will list some possibilities you have when using jisho.

  • Assistance and reading of texts and words;
  • Verbal inflection information;
  • Multiple word search mixing English and Japanese;
  • Add tags to filter searches;
  • See reading kanji names;
  • Know the JLPT level of a word or kanji;
  • Searches for phrases and sentences with a given word;

Just using tags makes it possible to learn anything using jisho. See can see a complete list of jisho tags accessing this page

Hope you enjoyed these tips for using the jisho to translate and learn Japanese. Did you know this site? What is your experience with him? We appreciate your comments and shares. We recommend other articles that will help you learn Japanese below:

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