お帰りなさい
おかえりなさい
hepburn okaerinasai
welcome home
Part of speech · expression
Pattern visualization
Examples
- お父さん、おかえりなさい。Welcome home, Dad.
- おかえり、今日はどうだった?Welcome back. How was today?
Collocations
おかえりなさい (okaerinasai, "welcome back" — polite)おかえり (okaeri, casual)帰る (kaeru, return home)帰宅 (kitaku, returning home — formal noun)ただいま (tadaima, paired greeting)
Mnemonic
おかえりなさい okaerinasai — お (honorific) + 帰り (kaeri, returning) + なさい (polite imperative). Literal: "[please] return" — surface imperative, but functional meaning is "welcome back". なさい usually marks a command, but in greeting templates (おやすみなさい, ごめんなさい) it softens to welcome/wishing tone. Derived from 帰る (kaeru, to return home). A social ritual marker for entry into one's home or affiliated space.
Quick check
なさい is imperative, but in greetings what tone does it carry?