Home in Japanese: “ie” or “katei”, explained in detail

How to say “home” in Japanese

Japanese people would say “ie” or “katei” to say “home” in Japanese. In this blog post, I will explain these two words in detail and how they are different through example sentences. Let’s get started!

Contents

• Definition and meaning of “ie”
• Definition and meaning of “katei”
• “Katei” in kanji
• Example #1: how to say “house” in Japanese
• Example #2: how to say “home” in Japanese
• Summary

Definition and meaning of “ie”

Let me start with the definition and meaning of “ie”.

• ie – 家 (いえ) : a noun meaning ‘house’ in Japanese. It can also be used as a plural noun meaning ‘houses’. Learn more about Japanese plural.

Normally, this kanji character is used to mean a building where someone lives. In many cases, therefore, “ie” means a building where someone lives. Depending on the situation and context, however, this word can also mean a place where a family lives. But, for this purpose, the other word, “katei”, is more suitable. Next, then, let me explain this word.

Definition and meaning of “katei”

Below are the definition and meaning of “katei”.

• katei – 家庭 (かてい) : a noun meaning ‘home’ in Japanese.

“Katei” basically means a place where a family lives or a family itself. So, unlike “ie”, this word focuses more on people inside a building. To understand this word more clearly, let me explain its kanji characters in detail, one by one.

“Katei” in kanji

Below are the kanji characters used in “katei”.

• 家 : a kanji character widely used to mean ‘house’.
• 庭 : a kanji character widely used to mean ‘garden’.

From theses two kanji characters, we can understand that “katei” literally means ‘house and garden’. This kanji concept seems to be suitable for a place where a family lives or gathers.

When we meet new kanji expressions, we should check their kanji characters in detail to understand their meanings clearly and deeply. In many cases, kanji characters tell us a lot about meanings of words they form. Actually, here, we could get the better understanding of “katei” through the detailed kanji check above.

Then, let me explain how to use “ie” and “katei” through the example sentences below. These example will show how these two words are different.

Example #1: how to say “house” in Japanese

Below are the new words used in the example sentence.

• kare – 彼 (かれ) : a pronoun meaning ‘he’ in Japanese.
• wa – は : a binding particle working as a case marker or topic marker. In the example, it is used after the pronoun, “kare”, to make the subject word in the sentence.
• wo – を : a case particle used to make the object word in a sentence. In the example, it is put after the noun, “ie”, to make the object word in the sentence.
• kai – 買い (かい) : one conjugation of the verb, “kau”, which means ‘to buy’ or ‘to purchase’ in Japanese. In the example, it has been conjugated for the better connection with its following word.
• mashi – まし : one conjugation of the auxiliary verb, “masu”, which is used after a verb to make it polite. Probably it is well known as a part of Japanese masu form. In the example, it is put after the conjugated verb, “kai”, to make it sound polite.
• ta – た : an auxiliary verb put after a verb, adjective, auxiliary verb, or phrase to make its past tense form. In the example, it is put after the verb phrase, “kai mashi”, to make its past tense form, “kai mashi ta”.

This is a typical usage of “ie”. In this example, it is used to mean a house, to focus more on a building. In this context, we cannot use “katei” instead of “ie”, as we cannot purchase people. When we want to say “house” in Japanese, anyhow, “ie” would be the best choice in most cases.

Example #2: how to say “home” in Japanese

Below are the new words and particle used in the example sentence.

• atatakai – 暖かい (あたたかい) : an i-adjective meaning ‘warm’ in Japanese. In this example, it is used as a part of the idiomatic expression, “atatakai katei”, which means ‘happy home’ or ‘loving home’.
• wo – を : the same as explained in the last example. In this example, it is used after the noun phrase, “atatakai katei”, to make the object in the sentence.
• kizuki – 築き (きずき) : one conjugation of the verb, “kizuku”, which means ‘to build’, ‘to make’, or such. “Atatakai katei wo kizuku” is an idiomatic expression meaning ‘to make a happy home’. In this example, “kizuku” has been conjugated for the better connection with its following word.
• masu – ます : an auxiliary verb put after a verb to make it polite. In this example, it is used after the conjugated verb, “kizuki”, to make it sound polite.

This is a typical usage of “katei”. When we want to say “home” in Japanese, this word would be the best choice in many cases. In this example, it is used as a part of the idiomatic expression, “atatakai katei wo kizuki masu”. We cannot use “ie” instead in this context, as “atatakai ie wo kizuki masu” sounds like ‘to build a house equipped with a heating system’. “Ie” focuses more on a building itself.

Summary

In this blog post, I’ve explained “ie” and “katei” and also how they are different. Let me explain them as follows.

• ie – 家 (いえ) : a noun meaning ‘house’ in Japanese. It can also be used as a plural noun meaning ‘houses’. Normally, this kanji character means a building where someone lives. In many cases, therefore, “ie” means a building where someone lives.
• katei – 家庭 (かてい) : a noun meaning ‘home’ in Japanese. This word normally means a place where a family lives or a family itself. These two kanji characters literally mean ‘house and garden’. This kanji concept is suitable for a place where a family gathers.
• atatakai katei wo kizuku – 暖かい家庭を築く (あたたかいかていをきずく) : a Japanese expression for ‘to make a happy home’ or ‘to make a loving home’.

Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.