洗う
あらう
hepburn arau
to wash
Part of speech · godan-verb
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 食事の前に手を洗いましょう。Let's wash our hands before eating.
- 汚れた服を洗っています。I am washing dirty clothes.
Collocations
洗う (arau, to wash)手を洗う (te o arau, wash hands)洗濯 (sentaku, laundry)洗剤 (senzai, detergent)洗顔 (sengan, face washing)
Mnemonic
Arau (洗う) is a godan verb — the general "to wash." Collocations: te o arau (wash hands), kao o arau (wash face), fuku o arau (wash clothes), sara o arau (wash dishes). Metaphor extension ashi o arau (wash one's feet → quit a bad business / sever ties with a former world) is a yakuza-film staple — "ashi o aratte katagi ni modoru" (wash one's feet and return to civilian life). Korean "son-eul te-da" and English "wash one's hands of" share the body-part metaphor, but Japan picks the feet (足) where Korean picks the hand (手). Sentaku (洗濯) is the Sino-Japanese noun "laundry" — a formal nominalization of the verb arau.
Quick check
Metaphor of "ashi o arau"?