What kanpai, daijoubu, genki and sensei literally mean

Four words you’ll hear in any Japanese drama: kanpai (cheers), daijoubu (it’s OK), genki (well, full of energy) and sensei (teacher). Read kanji by kanji, they say “dry the cup”, “big and strong”, “source energy” and “born before”. Two of them mean just what their kanji say. The other two have travelled a long way to get here.

Kanpai: “dry the cup”

乾杯 (kanpai) is 乾 (kan), dry, and 杯 (hai), a cup or glass. The toast says “drain your glass”, like “bottoms up”. 乾 is also the kanji in 乾く (kawaku), to dry, and 乾電池 (kandenchi), a dry-cell battery. 杯 has 木, wood, on its left and 不 on the right for the sound. It’s the counter for cups and glasses too, as in 一杯 (ippai), one glass. In both words its h sound changes to p: kan-pai, ip-pai.

In practice you don’t need to empty the glass. Wait until everyone has a drink and someone calls 乾杯, then raise your glass, or clink glasses at a casual party, and take a sip.

Daijoubu: from “a great man” to “it’s fine”

大丈夫 (daijoubu) is 大 (dai), big, plus 丈夫 (joubu), which in modern Japanese means strong or sturdy: a 丈夫な鞄 (joubu na kaban) is a bag that won’t fall apart. So “big and strong” is a fair word-by-word reading.

The history is more surprising. 丈 (jou) is an old unit of length. Its size changed over the centuries, but in ancient China it was said to match a grown man’s height. 夫 (fu) means a man, and today a husband; it began as a variant of 大, a person standing with arms spread wide. So 丈夫 first meant a full-grown man, and 大丈夫 meant a great man, a real hero. Japanese borrowed the word in that sense.

From around the 1500s, Japanese began using 大丈夫 for anything very solid and dependable, and then for anything safe or certain: nothing to worry about. From the Meiji era (1868–1912) the two words split clearly, with 丈夫 for “sturdy, healthy” and 大丈夫 for “all right”. Today it’s what you ask someone who has just tripped.

Genki: “source energy”

元気 (genki) is 元 (gen), origin or source, and 気 (ki), spirit, air or energy. In Chinese thought, 元気 was the original energy that fills heaven and earth and makes all things grow, and Japanese first borrowed the word with that meaning.

So how did the energy of the universe become “I’m fine, thanks”? One explanation, mentioned in the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, is a second word with the same sound: 減気 (genki), written with 減, decrease, which meant getting better after an illness. The two sounded alike and their meanings met, which may be how 元気 came to mean healthy and full of life.

元 began as a picture of a person with an emphasized head, and means origin or beginning: 元日 (ganjitsu) is New Year’s Day. 気 is one of the busiest kanji in Japanese, found in 天気 (tenki), weather, and 人気 (ninki), popularity. Its older form, 氣, has 米, rice, under 气, vapour; modern Japanese swaps the rice for a simple メ.

Sensei: “born before”

先生 (sensei) is 先 (sen), before or ahead, and 生 (sei), birth or life: someone born before you. The word came from Chinese, and in Japanese it has meant an elder, a scholar and, above all, a teacher. 先 began as a foot (止) above a person: one step ahead. 生 is a plant sprouting from the ground, the picture behind birth and life.

Sensei is a title as much as a job. Doctors, lawyers, politicians and well-known writers are all sensei, and the word goes after the name: 田中先生 (Tanaka-sensei).

How to use them

• 乾杯！

  Kanpai!

  Cheers!

• 大丈夫？

  Daijoubu?

  Are you OK?

• 袋は大丈夫です。

  Fukuro wa daijoubu desu.

  I don't need a bag, thanks.

• お元気ですか。

  Ogenki desu ka.

  How have you been?

• 先生、質問があります。

  Sensei, shitsumon ga arimasu.

  Sensei, I have a question.

• 大丈夫です often means “no, thanks”. Offered a bag or a receipt in a shop, you can decline with 大丈夫です. The Daijisen dictionary notes that this use has grown in recent years.
• お元気ですか is for people you haven’t seen in a while, like “how have you been?” It isn’t a daily “how are you?” for colleagues you saw yesterday.
• 元気 works on its own, too. 元気？ (genki?) is a casual “how are you?”, and 元気です (genki desu) means “I’m fine”.
• Don’t use sensei about yourself. It’s a title of respect for other people; teachers talking to young pupils are the main exception. To say you’re a teacher, use 教師 (kyoushi).

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Picture a party. Someone drains a glass dry (乾杯), a big strong man makes sure everyone is all right (大丈夫), the room is full of energy (元気), and the guest of honour is the teacher, born before all of you (先生).

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

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Sources

• Kotobank (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten): 大丈夫
• Kotobank (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten): 丈夫
• Kotobank (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten): 元気
• Wiktionary via Kaikki: 先生
• All About (Miura Yasuko): toast manners

Written by the Sumi team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email brightsmilesolutionssupport@gmail.com.