Japanese Clothing Vocabulary and Shopping Talk

Clothing words are sorted by body region

Japanese speakers group clothing by where it sits on the body, and the grammar follows that grouping. Torso items include shatsu (shirt), tī shatsu (T-shirt), sētā (jumper), jaketto, kōto, and wanpīsu (dress). Leg and foot items include zubon (trousers), jīnzu, sukāto, kutsushita (socks), and kutsu (shoes). Head items are bōshi (hat) and herumetto. Accessories, called komono, cover ties, belts, watches, and jewellery.

Most of these words are katakana loanwords, easy to recognise and easy to mispronounce: sētā, jīnzu, and kōto all carry long vowels that need two full beats. The third example below uses de for the outfit you go somewhere in, the same particle as densha de, so you can name an outfit without a wearing verb.

Kiru, haku, and kaburu: the verb follows the body part

Kiru is for anything that goes over the torso, whether it has sleeves or not: shirts, jumpers, jackets, coats, dresses, suits, pyjamas, and yukata. Haku is for anything you step into or pull over the legs and feet: trousers, skirts, shorts, socks, tights, shoes, boots, and sandals. Kaburu is for anything that covers the head from above: hats, caps, helmets, and hoods.

Small items take other verbs. Suru is the safe general choice for ties, belts, masks, gloves, and jewellery. Tsukeru also works for watches, necklaces, earrings, and perfume. Glasses and sunglasses take kakeru, and a scarf can take suru or maku, to wrap. Learners often reach for kiru for everything, and a sentence like kutsu o kimasu sounds as odd as saying you dressed in your shoes.

Taking things off is simpler. Nugu removes anything worn with kiru or haku, so kōto o nugimasu and kutsu o nugimasu both work, and kutsu o nuide kudasai is the line you hear at the entrance of a home or a temple. Hats, glasses, and accessories come off with toru or hazusu.

Describing what someone is wearing with te iru

Kimasu describes the action of putting on a shirt. To say that someone has a shirt on right now, Japanese uses the te iru form: kite imasu, haite imasu, kabutte imasu, shite imasu, kakete imasu. This is the same resulting-state use of te iru as kekkon shite imasu (is married), and it is the form you need for almost every real description of clothing.

The te iru form also lets you point someone out: megane o kakete iru hito (the person wearing glasses) puts the whole description in front of hito. The common learner mistake is asking nani o kimasu ka when you mean what someone has on, which sounds like asking about a plan to get dressed.

Sizes and fit

Sizes in most shops are letters read the Japanese way: esu, emu, eru, and eru eru or ekkusu eru for the largest. Shoes are in centimetres, so nijūgo senchi is a 25. When something does not fit, name the body part or the measurement with ga and then the problem: kata ga kitsui (tight in the shoulders), uesuto ga yurui (loose at the waist), take ga nagai (too long in the length), sode ga mijikai (sleeves too short).

Chōdo ii means just right and is the reply staff hope for. Pittari is a friendlier version of the same idea. If you want a different size, wan saizu ue and wan saizu shita ask for one up or one down. The shopping phrases post on this blog covers the fitting-room and checkout scripts, so here the focus is on the fit words themselves.

Materials and patterns

A material joins its item with no: men no shatsu (a cotton shirt), ūru no sētā (a wool jumper), kawa no kutsu (leather shoes). The everyday material words are men or kotton for cotton, ūru for wool, asa for linen, shiruku for silk, kawa for leather, and poriesuteru and nairon for synthetics. Percentages are read with pāsento, so a label reading 綿100% is men hyaku pāsento.

Patterns work the same way. Muji is plain with no pattern, sutoraipu or shima is striped, chekku is checked, mizutama is polka dots, and hanagara is floral. The suffix gara means pattern, so you will also hear mizutama-gara and chekku-gara. Ask about material when you care about warmth or washing, and about pattern when you want something plainer than what is on the rail.

Describing style: casual, formal, plain, and loud

Kajuaru and fōmaru are used as in English, and both are na-adjectives: kajuaru na fuku, fōmaru na kakkō. Jimi describes muted colours and understated design, and hade describes bright, bold, or attention-seeking pieces. Neither is an insult when applied to clothes, though calling a person jimi suggests they are dull. Oshare means stylish and is the compliment people actually give.

The verb niau means to suit, and the person it suits takes ni: watashi ni niaimasu. In conversation it usually appears as niatte imasu ne, the standard way to praise what someone is wearing, and the natural reply is thanks plus a small deflection, such as saying it was cheap, rather than agreeing.

Laundry and care words

Sentaku suru is to do the washing, arau is to wash a specific item, hosu is to hang it out to dry, tatamu is to fold, and airon o kakeru is to iron. Sentakuki is the washing machine and kansōki the dryer, though many homes in Japan still dry clothes on a balcony. Kurīningu ni dasu means to send something to the dry cleaner. Care labels use tearai for hand wash and chijimu for shrinking, the question to ask about wool, and shimi is a stain that has set.

Dress-code vocabulary at work

Fukusō is the formal word for attire, and the question fukusō wa jiyū desu ka asks whether dress is free, which is how you ask about a dress code. Sūtsu chakuyō on a notice means suits are required. Seifuku is a uniform and shifuku is your own clothes. Ofisu kajuaru is common in many offices, and kūru bizu is the summer practice, widely followed, of dropping ties and jackets in the heat.

Reference table: clothing items and their verbs

Where two verbs are listed, either is natural and suru is the safer choice if you are unsure. A bag is carried rather than worn, so it takes motsu, or kakeru when it hangs from a shoulder. Underwear follows the body-part rule too: a vest takes kiru and pants take haku.

Putting a whole outfit into one sentence

To describe an outfit you chain the verbs with the te form, which the te form guide on this blog explains in depth. Each item keeps its own verb, only the final one carries the tense: shatsu o kite, zubon o haite, bōshi o kabutte imasu. The pattern is long but regular, and it is exactly what you need when a friend asks what you wore or when you describe a person you met.

Kite ikimasu, to wear something and go, is how Japanese says you will go out in a particular item. It answers the common question of what to wear somewhere, and it is the form a host or colleague uses when giving advice about the weather.

How to practise clothing words out loud

• Describe your own outfit every morning in one chained te form sentence, and change the adjectives as the weather changes.
• On a train, silently describe three strangers with the te iru hito pattern, then say one description out loud on the way home.
• Sort your wardrobe by verb once: kiru items in one pile, haku in another, and say the verb as you put each item away.
• Rehearse two fit complaints and one compliment reply before your next shopping trip, so the fitting room does not force you to build sentences from scratch.