School in Japanese: gakkou, explained based on its kanji expression

How to say “school” in Japanese

Japanese people would say “gakkou”. It is the Japanese word for ‘school’. In this blog post, I will explain this word in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I will explain how to use it through example sentences. Let’s get started!

Contents

• Definition and meaning of “gakkou”
• Kanji of “gakkou”
• Example #1: how to say “I have school” in Japanese
• Example #2: how to say “I don’t have school” in Japanese
• Summary

Definition and meaning of “gakkou”

First of all, let me start with the definition and meaning of “gakkou”.

• gakkou – 学校 (がっこう) : a noun meaning ‘school’ in Japanese.

Its definition and meaning are quite simple and clear, I think. To understand this word a bit more clearly, however, let me explain its kanji characters in detail, one by one.

Kanji of “gakkou”

Below are the kanji characters used in the word, “gakkou”.

• 学 : a kanji character used to mean ‘to study’ or ‘to learn’ in Japanese. This kanji character is widely used in Japanese words related to the act of studying or learning. It can also be found in other words like “gakusei“.
• 校 : a kanji character often used to mean a place to study or learn.

From these two kanji characters, we can understand that the word, “gakkou”, literally means a place to study or a place to learn. So, what the kanji characters of “gakkou” express is completely in line with its meaning, ‘school’.

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 “gakkou” through the detailed kanji check above.

Then, let me explain how to use “gakkou” through the example sentences below.

Example #1: how to say “I have school” in Japanese

Below are the new words used in the example sentence.

• watashi – 私 (わたし) : a pronoun meaning ‘I’ in Japanese.
• wa – は : a binding particle working as a case maker to topic maker. In the example, it is put after the pronoun, “watashi”, to provide the topic. The phrase, “watashi wa”, is sometimes translated into English as ‘for me’.
• ashita – 明日 (あした) : a noun meaning ‘tomorrow’ in Japanese. Grammatically, it is a noun, but often used as an adverb to say “tomorrow” in Japanese. In this example, it is used as an adverb. Learn more about “ashita“.
• ga – が : a case particle put after a noun or pronoun to make the subject word or the object word in a sentence. In the example, it is put after the noun, “gakkou”, to make the subject word in the sentence.
• ari – あり : one conjugation of the verb, “aru”, which is used to express existence of things in Japanese. In the example, it is used to express the existence of the school tomorrow. It has been conjugated for a better connection with its following word.
• masu – ます : an auxiliary verb put after a verb to make it polite. Probably it is well known for a part of Japanese masu form. In the example, it is put after the conjugated verb, “ari”, to make it sound polite.

This is a typical usage of “gakkou”. The original nuance of the Japanese example sentence is more like ‘for me, the school exists tomorrow’, but normally we can understand its meaning as ‘I have school tomorrow’. The expression, “gakkou ga ari masu”, and its less polite expression, “gakkou ga aru”, can be interpreted as ‘to have school’ in most cases.

Example #2: how to say “I don’t have school” in Japanese

Below are the new words used in the example sentence.

• asatte – 明後日 (あさって) : a noun meaning ‘(the) day after tomorrow’ in Japanese. It can also be used as an adverb. In the example, it is used as an adverb to say “the day after tomorrow” in Japanese.
• wa – は : the same as explained in the last example. In this example, it is put after “asatte” to give the topic.
• mase – ませ : one conjugation of the auxiliary verb, “masu”, which has been explained in the last example. It is put after the conjugated verb, “ari”, to make it sound polite.
• n – ん : an auxiliary verb put after a verb, adjective, auxiliary verb, or phrase to deny its meaning. In the example, it is put after the verb phrase, “ari mase”, to deny its meaning.

This is another typical usage of “gakkou”. The original nuance of this Japanese example is more like ‘for the day after tomorrow, the school doesn’t exist’, but usually we can understand its meaning as ‘I don’t have school the day after tomorrow’. The expression, “gakkou ga ari mase n”, and its less polite expression, “gakkou ga nai”, are normally interpreted as ‘not to have school’.

Summary

In this blog post, I’ve explained the word, “gakkou”, in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I’ve explained how to use it through the example sentences. Let me summarize them as follows.

• gakkou – 学校 (がっこう) : a noun meaning ‘school’ in Japanese. These two kanji characters literally mean a place to study or a place to learn.
• gakkou ga ari masu – 学校があります (がっこうがあります) : a Japanese expression for ‘to have school’. It literally means ‘the school exists’, though.
• gakkou ga ari mase n – 学校がありません (がっこうがありません) : a Japanese expression for ‘not to have school’. It literally means ‘the school doesn’t exist’, though.

Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.