You’d say 'Domo.” Of course, you *could* say ‘Arigato’ but it sounds a little bit too formal for the situation. So, what do you say when a shop assistant hand you the items you buy and you want to say “Thanks.”?. It would be better to use ‘Arigato.’ when you say “Thanks” to your friends. Please note that some people consider ‘Domo.’ is a little bit rude. For example, when you leave a shop and a shop assistant says ‘Arigato gozaimashita.’ meaning “Thank you” to you, you can say ‘Domo.” as the reply. They also use it when they just want to say something as a reply. Just saying ‘domo’ would be less polite than ‘Arigato’ since it’s the short version of ‘Domo arigato.’ People use ‘domo’ rather than ‘arigato’ when they consider ‘arigato’ is a little bit formal in a situation. So, this ‘Domo’ can be used together with ‘Arigato.’ as in ‘domo arigato’ meaning “Thank you so much.” The word ‘domo’ itself is grammatically an adverb and means “for some reason,' or “somehow.” It is used to emphasise the greeting phrases. You know that ‘Arigato’ is the most common phrase in Japanese, but you hear Japanese people saying ‘Domo’ instead of ‘Arigato.’ When you go to a shop and a shop assistant hands you your change, you‘d say “Thanks.” to them. What is the difference between ARIGATO and DOMO? Welcome to Ask a Teacher where I’ll answer some of *your* most common Japanese questions.

Arigato gozaimasu kanji