KanjiPadHow to Write Thank You in Japanese — ありがとう
ありがとう
“Thank you” in Japanese is ありがとう, arigatō — a-ri-ga-to-o, with the final o held for two beats. Five hiragana, fourteen strokes.
On its own ありがとう is casual: friends, family, someone your own age, a shopkeeper if you are being breezy about it. Add ございます and you get ありがとうございます, the polite form you will use far more often — with strangers, staff, teachers, anyone senior to you.
If the kindness is already finished, Japanese switches the tense of the politeness: ありがとうございました, past form, is what you say leaving a restaurant or after someone has helped you.
It comes from 有り難い (arigatai), literally “difficult to exist” — hence rare, hence precious. Thanking someone in Japanese is, at root, calling what they did uncommon.
Writing ありがとう, character by character
14 strokes in all. Each animation plays once — press ↻ to watch it again.
- あ1
Stroke order
Three strokes: horizontal, vertical, then the loop that closes the character.
- り2
Stroke order
Two strokes, written left then right — they never touch in print.
- が3
Stroke order
This is か with a dakuten, the pair of short marks at the top right. Write the whole kana first, the two marks last.
- と4
Stroke order
Two strokes: the short tick first, then the long curve that crosses it.
- う5
Stroke order
Here う does not sound like “u” at all. After と it stretches the o into a long ō — which is why arigatō is also romanized arigatou.
Write it yourself
Reading stroke order is not the same as owning it. Draw ありがとう one character at a time and see whether your hand agrees with the animation.
Variants and politeness
The same word, dialled up or down:
- ありがとうございますarigatō gozaimasu
- The everyday polite form. Use this with anyone you do not know well.
- ありがとうございましたarigatō gozaimashita
- Past tense — for help that is over. Standard when leaving a shop or a meeting.
- どうもありがとうございますdōmo arigatō gozaimasu
- Warmer and more emphatic; どうも adds “very much”.
- どうもdōmo
- Clipped and casual, closer to “thanks”. Fine among friends, thin on its own with anyone senior.
- すみませんsumimasen
- Literally an apology, but constantly used to thank someone for going out of their way.
Common mistakes
- Writing ありがとおThe long o is spelled with う, not お. ありがとお looks like a typo to a Japanese reader.
- Using bare ありがとう with a superiorTo a teacher, a boss or a stranger it lands as too familiar. Add ございます.
- Choosing the wrong tenseございます for help happening now, ございました for help already finished. Getting this backwards is the giveaway of a beginner.
More everyday phrases
Practise ありがとう stroke by stroke — the app grades every stroke as you write it.