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Household objects in Japanese

Last updated July 7, 2026 · 5 min read

40 household objects in Japanese

Phrases you can actually say

Words alone don't get used in conversation — phrases do. Here are eight short sentences built from the words above:

• ソファーに座ります。 (Sofā ni suwarimasu.) — "I sit on the sofa."
• 枕はふわふわです。 (Makura wa fuwafuwa desu.) — "The pillow is fluffy."
• テレビをつけます。 (Terebi o tsukemasu.) — "I turn on the TV."
• 鍵はどこですか。 (Kagi wa doko desu ka?) — "Where are the keys?"
• お風呂に入ります。 (Ofuro ni hairimasu.) — "I take a bath."
• 傘を持っていきます。 (Kasa o motte ikimasu.) — "I'll bring an umbrella."
• 掃除機をかけます。 (Sōjiki o kakemasu.) — "I'll vacuum."
• 窓を開けます。 (Mado o akemasu.) — "I'll open the window."

Catch them instead of memorizing them

Forty nouns on a page will fade in a week if you never use them. The objects in this list are more useful walking around your own living room, camera in hand, than they are sitting in a table.

CatchFrase turns that walk into vocabulary: point your camera at your sofa, your lamp, your umbrella by the door, and it names the object in Japanese with kana or kanji, romaji, and a short example sentence, read aloud. Each catch becomes a sticker card in your personal collection — built from your actual house, not a stock photo — and comes back for review on a schedule built around when you're actually likely to forget it.

The free tier gives you 10 catches a day, so working through a 40-object house — living room one day, bedroom the next — takes about four days. That pace is by design: fewer, unhurried catches a day stick better than a rushed sprint through the whole house at once. CatchFrase Plus removes the daily cap if you want to move faster.

Common questions

Do these words work for any home, or just Japanese-style rooms?

Any home. These are the everyday nouns Japanese speakers use for a sofa, a bed, a remote control, and a mirror — the same objects sitting in your own living room and bedroom right now.

Should I learn these as single words or with a particle?

Both. The table gives you the word itself, but the example phrases show it with the particle it actually takes — 鍵はどこですか (Kagi wa doko desu ka?) teaches you kagi and wa together, the way you'll really use it.

How is this different from a generic Japanese word list?

A list only gives you the word. Photographing the actual sofa, remote, or mirror in your own house ties each word to something you already own, which research consistently shows helps it stick.