JLPT N5 Vocabulary List: ~800 Words by Category, Kanji Coverage, and Decks

The JLPT N5 vocabulary list is the roughly 800-word base behind the beginner level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験 N5). No official list exists, so the ~800 figure is the unofficial count the learning community settled on after the test was revised.¹²

Overview

There is no official JLPT vocabulary list. The Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES) do not publish a "Test Content Specification" that lists vocabulary, kanji, or grammar items. Their stated reason is that the goal of study is communication, not memorizing item lists.²

In its place, the JLPT publishes a "Summary of Linguistic Competence Required for Each Level," the composition of the test sections, and sample questions.² None of these is a word list.

This absence reflects the 2010 test revision. The pre-2010 test had four levels (1–4) and was based on a published Test Content Specification. The revised five-level test (N1–N5), introduced in 2010, has no such specification.³

So the widely used "~800 words for N5" figure is an unofficial community estimate reconstructed from the pre-2010 scope. It is not a JEES count.¹⁴⁵ The same "no official list" caveat, and how the unofficial counts stack up across all five levels, is the subject of "JLPT Vocabulary by Level: How Many Words for N5 to N1".

Why this article does not re-explain the exam

The N5 exam sections, scoring, and test dates are covered in "The JLPT Explained: Levels, Sections, and What Each Means". General word-count and coverage theory (how many words it takes to read or hold a conversation) lives in "How Many Japanese Words Do You Need to Be Fluent?". This page stays on the N5 word inventory itself.

Why "~800" and not an exact number

Community lists disagree by a few dozen words because each is reconstructed from a different base. Meguro Language Center's (MLC) total of 802 breaks down as 449 words from the JLPT Official Practice Workbook N5, 307 from the old Level 4, and 46 greeting words.⁴

Jonathan Waller's Tanos reconstruction of the same scope lists 689 vocabulary words in its N5 sound files, while summarizing the level as around 800.⁵ "Around 800 words" is the round figure most references settle on.¹

Treat ~800 as a band of roughly 650–800, depending on whether greetings, numbers, and counters are itemized separately, and treat the whole figure as unofficial.

How to read this list

Each table below lists the kanji form where applicable, the kana reading, optional romaji, an English gloss, and (for verbs) the conjugation class. Readings sit in their own column rather than as furigana so the tables stay scannable.

Many N5 words are conventionally written in kana even when a kanji form exists, so a kana reading appears alongside any kanji form. Over-drilling the rarer kanji forms wastes time, as covered under Good to know.

N5 vocabulary by category

The entries below are representative examples confirmed as N5 words on community reference lists, not the full inventory.⁶ You can extend each category from the same lists. The example sentences are minimal constructed N5 sentences; the citation on a word marks its N5 membership, not the sentence.

Verbs (動詞)

Kanji form	Reading	Romaji	Gloss	Class
する	する	suru	to do	irregular
来る	くる	kuru	to come	irregular
行く	いく	iku	to go	godan
食べる	たべる	taberu	to eat	ichidan
飲む	のむ	nomu	to drink	godan
見る	みる	miru	to see, to watch	ichidan
書く	かく	kaku	to write	godan
読む	よむ	yomu	to read	godan
買う	かう	kau	to buy	godan
洗う	あらう	arau	to wash	godan
歩く	あるく	aruku	to walk	godan
開ける	あける	akeru	to open (a door, etc.)	ichidan

パンを食たべる。
"I eat bread."

水みずを飲のみます。
"I drink water."

学校がっこうへ行いきます。
"I go to school."

Nouns (名詞)

Nouns are the largest N5 bucket, covering everyday objects, places, and people.⁶

Kanji form	Reading	Romaji	Gloss
水	みず	mizu	water
人	ひと	hito	person
本	ほん	hon	book
車	くるま	kuruma	car
学校	がっこう	gakkō	school
駅	えき	eki	(train) station
雨	あめ	ame	rain
足	あし	ashi	foot, leg
秋	あき	aki	autumn
赤	あか	aka	red (color)

本ほんを読よみます。
"I read a book."

あれは駅えきです。
"That is a station."

雨あめが降ふります。
"It rains."

い-adjectives and な-adjectives (形容詞・形容動詞)

N5 introduces both adjective classes. The split governs how each adjective conjugates, so keep it visible.

い-adjectives, confirmed N5 members:⁶

Kanji form	Reading	Romaji	Gloss
大きい	おおきい	ōkii	big
小さい	ちいさい	chiisai	small
高い	たかい	takai	tall, expensive
安い	やすい	yasui	cheap
明るい	あかるい	akarui	bright
甘い	あまい	amai	sweet
赤い	あかい	akai	red

な-adjectives, confirmed N5 members:⁶

Kanji / kana form	Reading	Romaji	Gloss
静か	しずか	shizuka	quiet
有名	ゆうめい	yūmei	famous
元気	げんき	genki	healthy, energetic
便利	べんり	benri	convenient
大好き	だいすき	daisuki	to like very much
きれい	きれい	kirei	pretty, clean

い-adjectives end in い and conjugate directly (大きい becomes 大きくない). な-adjectives take な before a noun (静かな部屋) and use です or だ when they form the predicate. The conjugation grammar itself belongs to the grammar articles. Here, the class label is what matters because it tells you which pattern applies.

きれい looks like an い-adjective but is not

きれい sounds like it ends in い, yet it is a な-adjective. Its form before a noun is きれいな, and its negative is きれいじゃない, never きれいくない. This is one of the most common early-learner traps, revisited under Good to know.⁶

大おおきい犬いぬです。
"It is a big dog."

この部屋へやは静しずかです。
"This room is quiet."

駅えきは便利べんりです。
"The station is convenient."

Time, dates, and numbers (時間・数)

Kanji / kana form	Reading	Romaji	Gloss
今	いま	ima	now
今日	きょう	kyō	today
明日	あした	ashita	tomorrow
朝	あさ	asa	morning
時間	じかん	jikan	time, hour
一	いち	ichi	one
二	に	ni	two
三	さん	san	three

The cardinal numbers 一/二/三 above are the start of a larger system covered in "Japanese Numbers: How to Count from 1 to 100,000,000 (and Beyond)". Days of the week, months, and the basic counters a learner meets at N5 are covered in "Time, Date, and Calendar Vocabulary in Japanese". That article teaches the counter grammar this list only points to.

今日きょうは寒さむいです。
"It is cold today."

明日あした来きます。
"I will come tomorrow."

今いま、何時なんじですか。
"What time is it now?"

Particles and function words

This category is a recognition checklist. The deeper grammar of each particle belongs to the grammar articles. The goal here is to recognize each form and its core function.

Form	Romaji	Function
は	wa	topic marker
が	ga	subject / nominative
を	o	direct object (accusative)
に	ni	location of existence, time, indirect object, direction
で	de	location of action, means
と	to	"and" (exhaustive), "with"
も	mo	"also, too"
から	kara	"from"; "because"
まで	made	"until, as far as"
だれ	dare	who
なに / なん	nani / nan	what
どこ	doko	where
いつ	itsu	when

あの人ひとはだれですか。
"Who is that person?"

駅えきはどこですか。
"Where is the station?"

家いえから学校がっこうまで歩あるきます。
"I walk from home to school."

Greetings and set phrases (あいさつ・表現)

These are fixed expressions, not forms you freely conjugate. The MLC reconstruction itemizes 46 greeting words as a distinct bucket within its 802 total.⁴

Form	Romaji	Use
おはよう（ございます）	ohayō (gozaimasu)	good morning
こんにちは	konnichiwa	hello / good afternoon
こんばんは	konbanwa	good evening
ありがとう（ございます）	arigatō (gozaimasu)	thank you
すみません	sumimasen	excuse me / sorry
いただきます	itadakimasu	said before eating
ごちそうさま（でした）	gochisōsama (deshita)	said after eating
さようなら	sayōnara	goodbye

The longer forms with ございます and でした are polite; the bare forms are casual. The politeness grammar behind them comes later, but the register difference matters from the first greeting. It returns under Good to know.

N5 kanji coverage

The words above use a small set of low-grade kanji. N5 maps to roughly the first 80–100 jōyō kanji, the regular-use kanji taught in Japan. This is also an unofficial figure, since no official list exists: sources give about 80 and about 100 across references.⁷¹

These characters fall almost entirely within grade 1 and grade 2 of the kyōiku kanji (教育漢字, "education kanji") set, the first characters Japanese schoolchildren learn.¹ That is why the kanji behind N5 vocabulary feels manageable: it is the same first wave that a six- or seven-year-old in Japan meets.

MLC pairs its N5 word list with the first 120 characters of its "Basic Kanji 320 (N5–N4)" set. This is another sign that the kanji load behind N5 vocabulary is small and low-grade.⁴

To drill the actual characters, work through the "Grade 1 Jōyō Kanji (小1)" and "Grade 2 Jōyō Kanji (小2)" lists. Nearly every kanji you meet in N5 words appears in one of those two grades. Keep the counts hedged: the JLPT-to-jōyō mapping is approximate, not official.

How to actually learn these words

A static list is not a study plan by itself. The general method for acquiring vocabulary by level is covered in "How to Learn Japanese Vocabulary: A Strategy by Level". The N5-specific game plan for reaching ~800 words is laid out in "JLPT N5 Vocabulary Strategy: How to Reach 800 Words". What is N5-specific is the pacing.

At about 10–15 new cards a day, you can clear ~800 words in roughly 8 to 11 weeks, or about two months. That is arithmetic based on the ~800 figure, not an external claim. It assumes you keep reviewing old cards on a schedule while adding new ones.¹

One point keeps the effort realistic: the JLPT measures recognition through reading and listening, not production. Passive recognition of these words is the bar for the exam. Being able to produce every word on demand is a separate, higher goal.²

Recommended deck and list sources

The de facto standard sources for the N5 word inventory are durable community reference lists, not an official document.² Three are citable for where the ~800 derives from:

• MLC's 802-word N5 PDF, with the 449 + 307 + 46 breakdown.⁴
• Jonathan Waller's Tanos N5 list, reconstructed from the pre-2010 Level 4 specification.⁵
• JLPTsensei's N5 vocabulary reference, with readings and example sentences.⁶

Several popular Anki and app decks circulate under community names as well. Treat any of them as convenient packaging for the same unofficial inventory. Judge a deck by whether its entries match these reference lists, not by its branding.

Amenokori app callout

Drill the N5 list with Amenokori's FSRS decks

To turn the whole list above into one deck, J-Compass recommends Amenokori. Its ready-made N5 set (801 entries) is scheduled by the FSRS algorithm, so you review it in about fifteen minutes a day and the words settle into place instead of slipping away. Its free tier covers the entire N5 portion of the library, so you can install it and finish this level without paying.⁸⁹ For where it fits among other tools, see "Choosing Your First Japanese Resources: Free vs. Paid" and "How to Learn Japanese Vocabulary: A Strategy by Level".

Good to know

Over-drilling rare kanji forms for words usually written in kana

Many N5 words are usually written in kana even when a kanji form exists. That is why the community lists present many entries in kana.⁵⁶ Memorizing the kanji form for every single word wastes time compared with recognizing the word at all. Learn the kanji that recur (the grade-1 and grade-2 characters), and let the kana-default words stay in kana.

Treating きれい as an い-adjective

Because きれい ends with the sound い, beginners often apply the い-adjective negative and produce きれいくない. That form does not exist. きれい is a な-adjective, so the negative is built differently.⁶

この部屋へやはきれいじゃない。
"This room is not clean."

Bare greeting forms in polite contexts

おはよう and ありがとう are casual. With teachers, strangers, and superiors, the polite forms おはようございます and ありがとうございます are expected.⁴ Both registers sit inside the N5 greeting category, so learn each greeting as a pair rather than as one form.

Chasing a single "correct" 800

Lists differ by a few dozen words because they are reconstructed from different bases: the practice workbook, the old Level 4, and different choices about whether to itemize greetings, numbers, and counters separately.⁴⁵¹ No single total is canonical, so pick one durable list and finish it instead of hunting for the "true" 800.

Recognition is the bar, not production

The JLPT tests reading and listening, so passive recognition of these words is sufficient to pass.² Productive recall, being able to say or write each word unprompted, is a worthwhile goal but a separate and higher one. Do not let it slow down your first pass through the list.

See also

• JLPT N4 Vocabulary List: ~700 New Words Beyond N5, by Category
• JLPT N5 Grammar Checklist: The Curated List
• Passive vs. Active Vocabulary in Japanese: The Two-Speed Problem
• Sentence Mining: Building Your Own Japanese Anki Deck From What You Read
• Word Frequency in Japanese: Why the First 1,000 Words Cover ~80%
• は vs が in Japanese: A Beginner's First Pass

References

Footnotes

1. Migaku. "JLPT Vocabulary Lists: Essential Resources for N5 to N1." https://migaku.com/blog/japanese/jlpt-vocabulary-lists . States the Japan Foundation and JEES "have never published official vocabulary lists for any level," that N5 "requires around 800 words," and that "N5 kanji total about 100 characters." (limitation: language-learning blog, used only for framing already corroborated by ².) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Japan Foundation & Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES). "Is there a 'Test Content Specification'?" JLPT FAQ. https://www.jlpt.jp/e/faq/ . Official statement that no list of vocabulary, kanji, or grammar items is published; in its place the JLPT offers the "Summary of Linguistic Competence Required for Each Level," "Composition of Test Sections and Items," and "Sample Questions." ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Japan Foundation & JEES. "New Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Guidebook: Executive Summary." https://www.jlpt.jp/reference/pdf/guidebook_s_e.pdf . Describes the revised five-level test (N1–N5) introduced in 2010, replacing the former four-level structure (Levels 1–4). ↩

4. Meguro Language Center (MLC). "JLPT N5 Vocabulary 802 Words (PDF + Audio)." https://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/n5_04_01.html . Community-compiled N5 word list; stated total 802 = 449 words from the JLPT Official Practice Workbook N5 + 307 words from the old Level 4 + 46 greeting words. Page also references the MLC "Basic Kanji 320 (N5–N4)" book, of which the first 120 kanji are the N5 subset. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Jonathan Waller. "JLPT Level N5 Resources." tanos.co.uk. https://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt5/ . Community N5 vocabulary list derived from the pre-2010 Test Content Specification (old Level 4). Page states the N5 vocabulary sound files contain 689 words; the summary line gives ~800. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

6. JLPTsensei. "JLPT N5 Vocabulary List." https://jlptsensei.com/jlpt-n5-vocabulary-list/ . Paginated N5 word reference with readings and English glosses; used here to confirm N5 membership of representative entries across categories. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

7. JLPTsensei. "JLPT N5 Kanji List." https://jlptsensei.com/jlpt-n5-kanji-list/ . States approximately 80 kanji are commonly listed for N5. ↩

8. Amenokori. Product landing page. https://amenokori.com . Mobile Japanese-learning app; built around the FSRS spaced-repetition algorithm; covers JLPT N5–N1 across vocabulary, grammar, and kanji. The kanji section is described as "Every regular-use kanji, sorted by frequency." ↩

9. Amenokori. Mobile-app feature page. https://amenokori.com/mobile-app/ . Advertises FSRS scheduling, "10K entries already built and optimised," "150K+ unique questions," and "~15 min / day, N5 → N1 coverage." ↩