こんにちは (konnichiwa) is a daytime greeting meaning “hello” or “good afternoon.” Its final sound is written は because the expression developed from 今日は with a topic particle. Use it when greeting someone during the day; the best greeting still depends on setting and relationship.
also 今日は / こんにちわ / こんばんは / おはよう
hello · good afternoon · good day
Sentences
こんにちは · the greeting itself
plain、。
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あ
あ
oh
interjection · the small noise of registering someone
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こんにちは
こんにちは ［5］
hello
interjection · 今日は — the は is the topic particle, read わ
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Oh — hello.
〜さん、こんにちは · with a name
plain、。
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田中
たなか
Tanaka
surname · among the commonest in Japan, 田 rice field ＋ 中 middle
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さん
さん
Mr / Ms
honorific suffix · attached to other people's names, never your own
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こんにちは
こんにちは ［5］
hello
interjection · name first is the warmer order when you know the person
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Hello, Tanaka.
おはようございます · the morning band
polite、。
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先生
せんせい ［3］
teacher
noun · also a form of address, used for doctors and lawyers too
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おはよう
おはよう ［0］
good morning
interjection · the ウ音便 of お早く, early — literally it is early
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ございます
ございます
polite ending
polite of ござる · what turns おはよう into the full-length greeting
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Good morning, sir.
こんばんは · the evening band
polite。。
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こんばんは
こんばんは ［5］
good evening
interjection · 今晩は — built exactly like こんにちは, same particle
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寒い
さむい ［2］
cold
i-adjective · of the air around you, not of a thing you touch
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です
です
polite ending
copula · sits after an i-adjective to make it polite, unchanged
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ね
ね
isn't it
sentence-final particle · invites the listener to agree
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Good evening. Cold, isn't it.
今日は〜 · the sentence it came from
polite。
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今日
きょう ［1］
today
noun · read きょう here; the greeting freezes the other reading, こんにち
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は
は
as for — the topic
particle · written は, read わ
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いい
いい
good; nice
i-adjective · irregular — past よかった, negative よくない
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天気
てんき ［1］
weather
noun · 天 sky ＋ 気 air; 天気がいい is the set phrase
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です
です
polite ending
copula · the polite full stop on a noun phrase
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ね
ね
isn't it
sentence-final particle · the same agreement-seeking ね
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Lovely weather today, isn't it.
Forms
こんにちは
On its own, to someone you are meeting or passing in the daytime. Neutral politeness — safe with strangers, shopkeepers and neighbours alike.
Name ＋ さん＋こんにちは
Name first, greeting second. Putting the name in front is warmer than the bare greeting and is the normal shape when you already know the person.
おはよう／こんにちは／こんばんは
Morning, day, evening. The boundaries are soft and read off the light and the situation rather than off a clock — there is no official cutoff.
今日は＋missing predicate
The construction the greeting was cut out of: 今日はご機嫌いかがですか, as for today, how are you. The は is that topic marker, still attached.
Meaning
It is half a sentence. 今日は means as for today — 今日 read こんにち, plus the topic particle は. What followed was a question about how the day was treating you, and it fell off. The greeting is the setup with the punchline removed, which is why it ends on a particle that leads nowhere.
That is the whole reason for the spelling. は is read わ when it is the topic particle, and this は is the topic particle, so the word is written こんにちは and said konnichiwa. こんにちわ is a misspelling — though a deliberate one online, where the kana わ reads softer and younger.
The bands are read off the light, not the clock. おはようございます in the morning, こんにちは through the day, こんばんは once it is dark. Nobody publishes the boundaries, and workplaces bend them freely — a broadcaster or a kitchen arriving for a night shift still opens with おはようございます, because the greeting marks the start of your day rather than the sun's.
There are places it does not go. Not to your own family at home, not to a colleague you already greeted this morning, not into a phone (that is もしもし), and not at the top of a business call or email, where お世話になっております does the job. Used in those slots it sounds like a tourist being friendly at the wrong person.
Inside the word
今 now and 日 sun or day. Read きょう it is plain today; read こんにち it means these days, nowadays and shows up in stiff writing — 今日的な課題, a present-day problem. The greeting keeps the stiff reading because it is centuries older than the modern one.
今晩は is this evening ＋ topic particle, cut off at the same place. おはよう came a different way: it is お早く, early, with the adverbial く softened to う — the same sound change that gives ありがとう and おめでとう their tails.
Kanjium gives こんにちは ［5］: the accent sits on the last of its five morae, so the word climbs and the fall lands on whatever comes next. Greetings usually end the utterance, so there is nothing for it to fall onto — which is why it sounds flat, and why the number surprises people.
Watch out
The final syllable is the topic particle は, which is read わ — the sound is right and the spelling is not. It is common online as a deliberate softener, the way nite is in English, but it is still wrong in anything you are graded on.
Greetings inside a household run on ただいま and おかえり, or on nothing at all. こんにちは to a family member sounds like addressing a stranger, which is exactly the distance it carries.
The slot is taken. On the phone you say your company and your name; in email you open with お世話になっております. Internally, the first meeting of the day is often お疲れ様です at any hour.
Japanese does not re-greet. Meeting someone again later in the day gets a nod, どうも, or nothing — a second full こんにちは reads as not having registered the first encounter.
Also asked
Hello, in the daytime. Literally it is 今日は, as for today — the opening of a longer greeting whose second half (roughly how are you keeping?) dropped away, leaving the topic particle stranded at the end.
Because that は is the topic particle, and the topic particle is always written は and read わ. The spelling records what the word is made of rather than how it sounds, which is why こんにちわ counts as a mistake.
Through the middle of the day — after the morning おはようございます and before it gets dark, when こんばんは takes over. The boundaries are judged by the light and the setting, not by a fixed hour.
Neutral. It is safe with strangers, shop staff and neighbours, and it is not warm enough for close friends, who get やあ, おっす or just their name. It is also not formal enough to open business correspondence.
No — a phone gets もしもし casually, and at work your company name and your own. こんにちは into a receiver is one of the clearest tells that someone learned the word from a textbook.
Spelling, and which reading you take. As こんにちは it is the greeting; as きょうは the same characters are an ordinary as for today, as in 今日はいい天気ですね. The greeting is normally left in kana to keep the two apart.
References
Digital Daijisen, 今日は — Records こんにちは as a daytime greeting and its historical spelling.
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