Question
I live in Tokyo with my Japanese husband, and the laundry is my job on weekends. I hang everything on the balcony in the morning, and by late afternoon the shirts and towels are usually ready to come in. I want to call out to him from the living room so he can help bring them inside before dinner. How do I say “The laundry is dry” in Japanese?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
洗濯物（せんたくもの）乾（かわ）いたよ。
Sentakumono kawaita yo.
The laundry’s dry!
At home with your husband, this is the line you’d call out the moment you notice everything has finished drying. Sentakumono covers anything you washed and hung up — shirts, towels, sheets, even a futon cover airing in the sun. Kawaita is the past tense of kawaku (to dry), and the yo at the end softly flags this as fresh news he didn’t know yet. In casual home talk, the little ga often gets dropped, which is why you hear sentakumono kawaita yo rather than sentakumono ga kawaita yo.
For a more polite version, say:
洗濯物が乾きました。
Sentakumono ga kawakimashita.
The laundry is dry.
That’s the form you’d use to a neighbor, a landlord, or in a workplace dorm setting. Kawaite imasu also works when you want to describe the current state — “they’re dry now, ready to fold.”
