お客さん Guest

Meaning

Primary

Guest

Alternatives

Visitor, Customer

Word Type

noun

Explanation

The さん on the end is the name honorific さん. It's there to show some respect. It's like saying "Mr. Guest!" or something like that. But that sounds dumb in English. We'll just call this word guest, visitor, or customer. You'll hear this word a lot when you're at a store or you're a customer somewhere in Japan. You are the お客さん, in that situation. Alternatively, you'll also hear お客さま which is a more polite version of this word (because it ends in さま and not さん).

Reading

おきゃくさん

Explanation

The reading is the reading you learned with the kanji. Just add the hiragana on the end and you'll be good to go.

Context

Common Word Combinations

• お客さんが〜

  お客さんが見える

  to be able to see the guest

  お客さんが来る

  a guest comes

  お客さんがいる

  there is a customer

Context Sentences

お客さんが入ってくると、このベルの音がします。

When a customer comes in, you'll hear the sound of this bell.

お客さんにお茶を出しました。

I served tea to the customer.

あなたは大切なワニカニのお客さんの一人なんですよ。

You are one of our precious WaniKani customers.

Kanji Composition

1. 客

   きゃく Guest