Pronouns In Japanese

Japanese uses pronouns rarely, although there are many pronouns in Japanese, varying in degrees of formality. Women are also expected to use more formal pronouns than men.

• Ware - I, outdated, highly formal
• Waga - I,outdated, highly formal
• Watakushi - I, very formal
• Watashi - I, formal for men, average for women
• Atashi - I, slightly informal, female use
• Boku - Informal, male use only
• Ore - Highly informal, boastful, egotistic, male use only
• Anata - You, formal
• Kimi - You, average
• Kare - He
• Kanojo - Her
• Karera - They
• Atash'itati - We, female
• Bokutati - We, male
• Wareware - We

Despite this wide variety of pronouns, Japanese is a pro-drop language where context is usually sufficient to determine who or what you are speaking of.