No. 2,328 in Japanese
ちゃお
The Japanese word "ちゃお" (chao) is an informal greeting or farewell, derived from the Italian "ciao."
In a sentence
ちゃお!今日はどこに行くの?
Ciao! Where are you going today?
Here, 'ちゃお' is used as an informal greeting, similar to 'Hi!' or 'Hello!' often seen in casual contexts.
彼は友達にちゃおと言って別れた。
He said 'Ciao' to his friend and parted ways.
In this case, 'ちゃお' serves as a goodbye, reflecting the borrowed Italian usage where 'Ciao' means both hello and goodbye.
ちゃお、と挨拶してくれる彼女が素敵だ。
She's wonderful, greeting with 'Ciao'.
This use of 'ちゃお' highlights the stylish or unique aspect of someone using this informal greeting.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “ちゃお” in actual Japanese podcasts.
Find “ちゃお” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Japanese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 日本語, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Japanese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).