Categories: Mini Vocab Lessons

Differentiate Japanese Verbs for Sleep 寝る Neru and 眠る Nemuru


Hi ! We hope this site helps you! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases without additional cost. Click to read more about our Privacy Policy or Affiliate Disclosure


Did you know there are 2 type of sleep in Japanese words?

For sleeping as in “go to bed/lying down to take a nap”, it is 寝る (Neru). And the opposite is 起きる (Okiru), which means to get up from the lie down posture).

For sleeping as in “you’re in train/classroom and fell asleep” (not necessarily lying down), it is 眠る (Nemuru). So to wake up someone who’s sleeping on a train, you will need to use 目覚める (Mezameru), which means to open their eyes and be sober.

The key here is in the posture! 😀 But sometimes they are also interchangeable. One thing to note though, when you’re talking about “What time do you go to sleep at night?” or anything similar, you always use 寝る (Neru).

Happy Learning 。゚✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ノ.✶゚ฺ。 

CrunchyNihongo

We would like to make Japanese an easier language to learn! Check out our easy Japanese Lessons at www.crunchynihongo.com

Share
Published by
CrunchyNihongo

Recent Posts

Japanese Word Drill Game

Learn Japanese words as if you're playing a game!

4 years ago

Best gifts for Japanese learner!

Holiday is near and it’s the month of love & gifts! (more…)

6 years ago

Japanese Conversation: What is that?

Today's lesson will help you to get a topic to converse with your friend about…

7 years ago

List of Japanese Aisatsu (Japanese Common Greetings)

Let's learn a lot of useful Japanese greetings (Aisatsu) (more…)

7 years ago

Japanese Vocabularies: Talking about human body

Let’s talk about human body in Japanese! (more…)

7 years ago

List of Useful Travel Phrase in Japanese

Below you can find a lot of useful phrase that will help you travel in…

7 years ago