Japanese changes with the person you're talking to. A friend hears 行く, and a shop clerk hears 行きます, so ask ChatGPT for one style and keep it. Japanese also mixes three scripts in one sentence, and the same kanji can be read in different ways. So the prompts below ask for the polite style and for the reading of every kanji.
Which ChatGPT Prompts Work for Japanese?
Read Japanese with Furigana
Furigana are small hiragana that show how to read a kanji. In a chat, ask for the reading in brackets right after each kanji word.
I'm learning Japanese. I can read hiragana and katakana, and I know some kanji. Write 6 short sentences in Japanese about my weekend. Use the polite です and ます forms in every sentence. Use these words: 駅、切符、電車. After every word that has kanji, put its reading in hiragana in brackets, like 駅(えき). Below the text, list each new word with its meaning in English.
Ask About は and が
The little words after a noun, like は, が, を, and に, carry much of the meaning. Ask about one sentence at a time.
Here is a Japanese sentence: "私は猫が好きです。" Name each particle in it and say what it does in this sentence. If it uses は or が, tell me why that one fits here and how the meaning would change with the other. Then write two new short sentences with the same pattern. Keep your answer under 150 words.
Order at a Ramen Shop
Practice ordering somewhere you'd really go. ChatGPT plays the staff, who speak politely to customers.
Let's role-play in Japanese. You work at a ramen shop in Tokyo. I've just bought a ticket for miso ramen from the machine and handed it to you. Greet me the way staff do, and ask how firm I want the noodles and whether I want a large portion. Say one short line at a time and wait for me. I'll answer in the polite style. After eight turns, show me two lines I could have said more naturally.
ChatGPT Voice lets you say your answers out loud and hear the reply. OpenAI's help page lists two Japanese voices for its Live option, Himari (ひまり) and Rindō (りんどう), though the voices you see may depend on your region and account.
Check Your Writing
Ask ChatGPT to look for a mix of polite and plain endings, since that's easy to miss in your own writing.
Here's something I wrote in Japanese: "Paste what you wrote here" Check particles, verb forms, and kanji use. Tell me if I mixed polite and plain endings. For each fix, give my version, your version, and one short reason in English.
How to learn a language with AI has five more prompts that work in any language.
How Do You Check ChatGPT's Japanese?
Before you learn a word from ChatGPT, check how it's read as well as what it means. OpenAI's help page lists "incorrect definitions" among the mistakes ChatGPT can make.
- Use JishoJisho is a free Japanese-English dictionary built on the JMdict project. Search a word to see its kanji, its reading, and its meanings.
- Check Each ReadingA kanji can have more than one reading, so check that the hiragana in brackets match the dictionary. For example, 今日 is read きょう in 今日は暑い, and こんにち in 今日は, the old way to write こんにちは.
- Save Your Style OncePut your level and the polite style in ChatGPT's custom instructions, so every new chat starts with them. OpenAI says they work on every plan, with up to 1,500 characters on the free plan.
- Ask for the Plain FormAsk ChatGPT for each polite verb in its dictionary form too, like 行きます and 行く, so you can find it in Jisho.
Where Does Bubblegum Fit?
Bubblegum is a language app with Japanese lessons at six levels, so you read text that fits you without writing a prompt.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Japanese. You learn from Japanese you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, a topic, and she writes a Japanese lesson at your level that you can read and hear.
- Furigana over the kanji show you how each word is read.
- Send Poppy a photo of a menu or a manga page, and she explains it line by line.
- Practice speaking Japanese with Poppy in live voice chat.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't import a whole book or manga volume to read in Bubblegum.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches Kana
Mobile
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Learn Hiragana Before Using ChatGPT?
Yes. Every prompt here is written in Japanese script, so learn the 46 hiragana first, then katakana. The hiragana course and katakana course teach each letter with a picture and audio, and the hiragana mnemonics chart shows them all on one page.
Can ChatGPT Help Me with Formal Japanese (敬語)?
It can write a line in the polite style and in the more formal style used at work, side by side. Ask it to label which is which, and then check the forms in a grammar book, since formal Japanese has many fixed words.
Which App Should a Japanese Beginner Choose?
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- OpenAI Help Center, Does ChatGPT tell the truth? (checked 2026-10-15)
- OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT Voice (checked 2026-10-15)
- OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT Custom Instructions (checked 2026-10-15)
- Jisho, About (checked 2026-10-15)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
