How to Say ‘Beginning / start’ in Japanese
はじめ
はじめ
💬 Usage Tip: Often appears in greetings like [はじめまして]. By itself, [はじめ] means “the beginning.”
🇯🇵 In Japan: You’ll most commonly meet this as part of the set greeting [はじめまして] when meeting someone for the first time.
Word-by-Word Breakdown
はじめはじめ
[hajime]
beginning; start
A noun meaning “beginning/start.” In self-introductions you most often hear it as part of はじめまして (“Nice to meet you”), but はじめ by itself can mean “the beginning.”
はじめは、緊張しました。
At the beginning, I was nervous.
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