No. 461 in Japanese
一番
"Number one; the best; most; first."
In a sentence
私はクラスの中で一番背が高いです。
I am the tallest in the class.
In this sentence, 一番 is used as a superlative, indicating 'the tallest' in the context of comparing heights within the class.
この映画が一番好きです。
I like this movie the most.
Here, 一番 is used to express liking something 'the most' out of a comparison or selection.
一番電車は何時に駅に到着しますか？
At what time does the first train arrive at the station?
In this example, 一番 serves as 'first,' referring to the sequence order of trains arriving.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “一番” in actual Japanese podcasts.
Find “一番” 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).