ご飯を食べて
gohan o tabete
To say "eat your food" in Japanese, use ご飯を食べて (gohan o tabete).
ご飯を食べて is used as a command or request to tell someone to consume the meal provided to them. It is often used to casually encourage someone to eat.
What does it mean word for word?
ご飯 (gohan) literally means "cooked rice" but is used idiomatically to mean "meal". 食べて (tabete) is the "te-form" of the verb taberu (to eat), used here to create a soft command or request.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
ご飯を食べて is an informal way to tell someone to eat, commonly used by parents to children or between close friends.
How does it change in a sentence?
Adding ください to the end of ご飯を食べて makes the request more polite and complete.
How do you pronounce it?
gohan o tabete
Did you know?
- In Japanese culture, if you finish your meal completely and leave no grains of rice behind, it is often seen as a sign of respect to the farmer who grew the crop.
- While ご飯を食べて (gohan o tabete) is a request to eat, a more polite way to acknowledge a meal before eating is the set phrase いただきます (itadakimasu), which literally means 'I humbly receive'.
- Because ご飯 (gohan) is so synonymous with 'meal', even if you are eating bread or pasta, you might still hear people refer to the act of eating as 'eating rice'.
Examples in context
- 冷めないうちに、ご飯を食べて。Samenai uchi ni, gohan o tabete.Eat your food before it gets cold.
- もっと早く、ご飯を食べてね。Motto hayaku, gohan o tabete ne.Eat your food more quickly, okay?
- 準備ができたら、ご飯を食べて。Junbi ga dekitara, gohan o tabete.Eat your food once you are ready.
Example conversation
Youta is telling Himari to finish her meal.
- 陽太 Yota骨舞, ご飯を食べて。Himari, gohan o tabete.Himari, eat your food.
- 陽葵 Himariあとちも あります。Ato mo arimasu.There is still some left.
- 陽太 Yotaずいで ずいで 許す。Zutto zutto hanashimasu.We will talk about it after you finish.
- 陽葵 Himariはい, 〒いデス。Hai, wakatta.Okay, I understand.
