How to say "fishing" in Japanese
Choosing the right word
- nounFishing or angling in the everyday sense: catching fish with a rod and line as a pastime. Typical contexts include weekend trips to a river, pier, or pond.
- 漁りょうnoun, noun (suffix)Covers fishing broadly, including gathering seafood such as clams and seaweed, so it goes beyond rod-and-line angling; think of fishing in the sense of harvesting seafood generally.
- 魚釣りさかなつりnounThe everyday word for fishing, literally catching fish. It fits a casual fishing outing — a river, pier, or boat trip — and overlaps closely with つり in everyday use.
- 漁労ぎょろうnounA technical term for fishing or fishery, found in scholarly and official writing rather than everyday speech; seldom the word you want for talking about going fishing.
- 漁獲ぎょかくnoun, suru verb, transitive verbRefers to the catch or haul — the fish taken by fishing — rather than the activity itself. It fits fishery and catch statistics, not sentences like 'I went fishing.'
Use 「つり」 or 「魚釣り」 for recreational fishing with a rod, 漁 for taking seafood broadly including clams and seaweed, 漁労 as a technical term for fishing or fishery, and 漁獲 for the catch or haul rather than the activity.
Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only
Japanese equivalents
See also
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