おかえり (okaeri) means “welcome back” or “welcome home.” It is the familiar response to someone returning, while おかえりなさい is fuller and more polite. As a fixed greeting, おかえりなさい does not function as a fresh command to go home.
also written okaerinasai / お帰り / お帰りなさいませ
welcome back · welcome home
Sentences
おかえり · the short form
plain、！
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
あ
あ
oh
interjection · noticing someone has come in
Ask Rikai
おかえり
おかえり ［0］
welcome back
set phrase · short form, and the warm one between close people
Ask Rikai
Oh, welcome back!
おかえりなさい · the full form
polite、。
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
お父さん
おとうさん ［2］
dad; father
noun · the word for somebody's father, your own included when addressing him
Ask Rikai
おかえりなさい
おかえりなさい
welcome home
set phrase · お ＋ 帰り ＋ なさい, where なさい is honorific, not an order
Ask Rikai
Welcome home, Dad.
おかえりなさいませ · the service register
polite、。
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
お客様
おきゃくさま ［4,0,5］
customer; madam, sir
noun · the honorific for a customer, and unavoidable in service Japanese
Ask Rikai
おかえりなさいませ
おかえりなさいませ
welcome back — service register
set phrase · ませ is the honorific imperative of ます, deferential not bossy
Ask Rikai
Welcome back, madam.
おかえり with a follow-up
plain past。。
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
おかえり
おかえり ［0］
welcome back
set phrase · greeting first, then whatever you actually wanted to say
Ask Rikai
遅かった
おそかった
were late
past of 遅い · the い becomes かった
Ask Rikai
ね
ね
weren't you — inviting agreement
particle · softens it from an accusation into a remark
Ask Rikai
Welcome back — you're late, aren't you?
お帰り as a noun · not a greeting
polite？
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
お帰り
おかえり ［0］
your return; heading back
honorific noun · お ＋ the stem of 帰る, and no greeting involved
Ask Rikai
は
は
as for — the topic
particle · written は, read わ
Ask Rikai
いつ
いつ ［1］
when
interrogative · asks for a time
Ask Rikai
です
です
is — polite
copula · polite frame for the question
Ask Rikai
か
か
question marker
particle · closes the question
Ask Rikai
When are you heading back?
ただいま and おかえり · the pair
plain。。
Hover, tap, or tab through the words.
ただいま
ただいま ［4］
I'm home
set phrase · the call this greeting answers
Ask Rikai
おかえり
おかえり ［0］
welcome back
set phrase · the answer, and it is close to automatic
Ask Rikai
— I'm home. — Welcome back.
Forms
おかえり
The everyday answer at home. Warm and short — not a lazy abbreviation, but the form that closeness calls for.
おかえり＋なさい
The full form, and the polite one. To a parent, a senior, a guest — and commonly at home too, especially from an adult to a child.
おかえりなさい＋ませ
Service register: hotels, department stores, maid cafés. ませ is the honorific imperative of ます — deferential, and it marks the speaker as serving you.
お帰り＋は / の
お帰りはいつですか, when do you head back? The honorific noun, not the greeting — and the context makes it unambiguous.
Meaning
おかえりなさい is お ＋ 帰り ＋ なさい, and the なさい is the honorific なさる — to do, respectfully — not the なさい that tells a child to tidy up. The literal sense is closer to you have honourably returned than to any instruction.
Shorter is warmer here, and that is unusual. Normally clipping a phrase makes it casual and slightly careless. With this one, おかえり is what you say to people you are close to and おかえりなさい is the careful version — so the short form signals intimacy rather than laziness.
ませ puts you in a service relationship. おかえりなさいませ is what a hotel or a high-end shop says, and what a maid café says as a joke on exactly that. Said between friends it is either a performance or a tease — it is not simply a politer option.
The same characters are an ordinary noun. お帰りはいつですか asks when someone is heading back, and no greeting is involved. Japanese reuses お ＋ verb-stem constantly — お帰り, お待ち, お休み — and context does the disambiguating.
Inside the word
Specifically going back where you belong — 帰国 returning to your country, 帰宅 getting home. 戻る is the neutral come-back-again verb, which is why the office says ただいま戻りました.
なさる is the honorific to do, and its imperative なさい ended up in two very different places: the parental 早く寝なさい, and honorific set phrases like おかえりなさい and おやすみなさい. Same form, and nobody is being ordered anywhere in the second kind.
Flat, with no fall — low on お and high across the rest, which is what makes it sound like an open, unhurried greeting. The noun 帰り on its own is ［3］; the honorific お flattens the whole word.
Watch out
It is the honorific なさる, not the なさい that sends a child to bed. おかえりなさい is simply the fuller, politer form of the greeting — and おやすみなさい is built the same way.
ませ marks you as serving the person you are talking to — hotels, department stores, maid cafés. Said to a flatmate it is a joke, and if it is not meant as one it lands strangely. おかえり is the form for people you live with.
It runs the other way here. おかえり is what closeness sounds like, and おかえりなさい is the careful version — so switching to the long form with someone you live with can read as putting distance between you.
Also asked
Welcome back, or welcome home. It is the answer to ただいま, and the pair is close to automatic — one person calls from the door and the other returns it.
No. The なさい is the honorific なさる, to do respectfully — not the なさい of 早く寝なさい. The sense is nearer you have honourably returned. おやすみなさい is built the same way.
おかえり with people you are close to, おかえりなさい for someone senior, a guest, or simply when you want to be careful. Unusually, the short form here is the warm one rather than the careless one.
The same greeting in the service register — hotels, high-end shops, and famously maid cafés. ませ is the honorific imperative of ます, and it marks the speaker as serving you. Between friends it reads as a performance.
The second is not a greeting. お帰り there is an honorific noun — your return — so the sentence asks when someone is heading back. Japanese builds nouns like this constantly (お待ち, お休み) and context separates them.
おかえり, accent ［0］ — flat, with no drop, which is part of why it sounds open and unhurried. The plain noun 帰り is ［3］; adding the honorific お flattens it.
References
Digital Daijisen, お帰りなさい — Defines the expression as a greeting to someone who has returned.
Nearby
That's the whole list. rikAI is an iPhone app and it isn't out yet.
See what rikAI does · How it works · All grammar points · Language concepts
