Japanese has a few common words for “bicycle”. Let’s examine them with several example sentences.
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自転車
The most common and general word for “bicycle.”
今日は自転車で会社に行きました。
I went to the office by bicycle today.
- 今日 today
- は topic particle; indicates the topic of the sentence
- 自転車 bicycle
- で particle; used to indicate means or method
- 会社 company; office
- に particle; used to indicate the direction or destination
- 行きました past form of "go"; indicates a completed action
チャリンコ
A slangy way to say “bicycle.”
このチャリンコ、新しいの？
Is that a new bike?
- この this
- チャリンコ bike; a casual term for bicycle
- 、 punctuation; similar to a comma in English
- 新しい new
- の particle; used here to make an explanatory statement or question [The particle "の" (no) at the end of a sentence can be used to make an explanatory statement or question. In this context, it turns the adjective "新しい" into a question, asking if the bike is new. This kind of question can feel more casual and conversational in Japanese.]
チャリ
A shortened form of the previous slang for a bike.
チャリ、貸してくれない？
Could you lend me your bike?
- チャリ bike; a casual term for bicycle
- 、 punctuation; similar to a comma in English
- 貸して verb; te-form of "貸す", to lend; used here to make a request
- くれない？ auxiliary verb; it's a negative form of "くれる", which means to do something for me; when used in question form, it is a way of making a polite request
彼女は毎日ママチャリでスーパーマーケットに行きます。
She goes to the supermarket every day on her bike.
- 彼女 she
- は topic particle; indicates the topic of the sentence
- 毎日 every day
- ママチャリ a practical bicycle with a basket or a child seat; often used by mothers in Japan for daily tasks
- で particle; used to indicate means or method
- スーパーマーケット supermarket
- に particle; used to indicate the direction or destination
- 行きます go [polite of 行く (to go)]
Makoto+ Members, click here to download all the sound files and PDF with eight bonus sentence breakdowns just for this lesson. Practice makes perfect!
