お疲れ

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 一日お疲れさま。▶ —
   Good work today.
2. お疲れさまでした、また明日。▶ —
   Good work today, see you tomorrow.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Otsukare (お疲れ) is the keystone greeting in Japanese workplaces and daily life — o- (polite prefix) + tsukare (tiredness / hard work) = "your honored fatigue." Register ladder: (1) "Otsukare!" (most casual, friends / peers), (2) "Otsukaresama" (peer / general, with the polite suffix -sama), (3) "Otsukaresama desu" (present — arriving at work, passing in corridors), (4) "Otsukaresama deshita" (past — leaving work, ending meetings, polite). Japanese offices say otsukaresama far more often than konnichiwa — it is the default workplace greeting. Compare gokurousama (御苦労様, "your honorable hardship") — top-down only; using it upward is rude (already covered in the tsukareru entry). Korean "sugohaseyo / sugohasyeotseumnida" parallels, but Japanese workplaces apply it with higher frequency and precision.

Quick check

1. Tense difference between otsukaresama desu and otsukaresama deshita?

   • Desu = present / ongoing (arriving at work) / deshita = past / completed (leaving, ending)
   • Synonyms
   • Honorific vs humble
   • Person 1/2/3 split