Question
I’m staying with a host family in Osaka and the landline rang while everyone else was out. I picked up, a little nervous, and the voice on the other end said one quick word I wasn’t expecting: moshi moshi. What does it mean, and when am I supposed to use it myself?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
もしもし。
Moshi moshi.
Hello (on the phone).
If you’ve ever picked up a Japanese phone and heard a cheerful moshi moshi on the other end, that’s the first word almost every casual phone call in Japan begins with. You use it almost only on the phone — you’d rarely say it face-to-face or as a greeting when you walk into a room. It’s strictly a “hello, are you there?” signal across a line. The word comes from the old verb 申（もう）す (mousu, to say), doubled up long ago into a polite attention-getter. One thing worth knowing — in business calls today, moshi moshi sounds a little too casual, and most offices answer with “Hai, [company name] desu” instead. But ring a friend or your host family and moshi moshi is exactly what you’ll hear, and what you should say back.
