こんばんは

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. こんばんは、お元気ですか。▶ —
   Good evening, how are you?
2. こんばんは、ご来店ありがとうございます。▶ —
   Good evening, welcome (to our store).

Collocations

Mnemonic

こんばんは konbanwa — 今晩 (konban, tonight) + は (topic particle): a clipping of "as for this evening, [how are you?]". Always spelled こんばんは. Frequent error: こんばんわ — writing the particle は phonetically as わ. Same trap with こんにちは / こんにちわ. Greetings preserve their etymological spelling regardless of the phonetic merge. Pronunciation is [konbanwa] / [konnichiwa].

Quick check

1. Correct written form of "good evening"?

   • こんばんは (preserves particle は)
   • こんばんわ (particle written as わ, error)
   • 今晩は (kanji-only, formal)
   • Both forms OK