How to say “Good luck” or “You can do it!” in Japanese?

Instead of just translating “Good luck” and “You can do it” into Japanese, today we’ll be learning about different kinds of words of encouragement in Japanese.

There might be a lot of times you would want to cheer up your Japanese friends but you’re unsure on what to say. In that case, use this article below as your cheatsheet!

Different kinds of encouragement set-phrases in Japanese

Good luck!

頑張れ！
Ganbare!
Literally means: “Hold on!/Keep at it!/Do your best!”

Another variant is 頑張ってください! (Ganbatte kudasai) and 頑張ってね！(Ganbatte ne!). てください (te kudasai) makes it more formal. In the 2nd variant, the ください (kudasai) is removed to make it shorter and particle ね (ne) is added in the back. More or less it means “Do your best, okay?”.

You can do it!

To express this kind of encouragement in Japanese, you can use this phrase below:

君なら出来るよ！
Kimi nara dekiru yo!
Literally means: “If it is you, you will be able to do it”

君 (kimi) means you. In most case, 君 (kimi) will be replaced by your friend’s name. And note that 君 (kimi) is a word that you use to someone which is on the same social level as you or lower.

So it’s not appropriate to say 君 (kimi) to someone with a higher social level than you such as your boss. In that case, you can use their job words such as 先生 (for teacher/doctor), 会長 (chairman) or their name plus suffix さん (san). Such as:

• 先生なら出来ますよ！ (Sensei nara dekimasu yo!)
• 山田さんなら出来ますよ！(Yamada-san nara dekimasu yo!)

It will be okay/It is alright

大丈夫ですよ!
Daijoubu desu yo!

大丈夫 (daijoubu) means all right, while the particle よ (yo) add certainty to it.

Don’t think too much!

考えすぎないで！
Kangaesuginaide
Please don’t think too much (have a soft tone, rarely used by men)

考える (kangaeru) means to think. 考えすぎる (kangaesugiru) means to think too much.

考えすぎるな！
Kangaesugiruna
Don’t think too much!

The な (na) on the end is a pattern which make a sentence turn into an order/command. So this one has a rough tone to it.

That’s so cool!

To expressed this or expression such as “Wonderful!” and “Wow!”, you can say “最高! (saikou!)” which means the best. You can also use it to praise someone.

Another words to express similar expression in Japanese are:
• スゴイな (sugoi na) : Amazing!
• ステキ! (suteki!) : Beautiful! Lovely! (have a feminine tone)
• おいしい！ (oishii!) : Delicious!
• おいしそう (oishisou) :　It looks delicious!
• かわいい! (kawaii) : Cute!

Hope it helps! Happy learning~ ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡