First words that are taught to babies


What are the first few words that are taught to a baby in Japan? I would
assume はは and ちち are couple of them to call mom and dad.




According to one survey introduced in [this
article](https://ddnavi.com/news/366066/a/), here is the list of most common
words a baby **says** first in their life:

Rank | Japanese | English  
---|---|---  
1 | ばあ | (Peek-a-)Boo  
2 | まんま | I'm hungry  
3 | わんわん | doggie  
4 | ママ | Mom  
5 | パパ | Dad  
6 | あっ | Ah! / Hey!  
7 | はい | Yeah / Here you go  
8 | バイバイ | Bye-bye  
9 | あーあ | Uh-oh  
10 | アンパンマン | [Anpanman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman)  
  
(Note that this is not the list of first 10 words babies **learn**. Babies
usually understand many words before they learn to say them out loud.)

I'm pretty certain that はは and ちち are not even in the list of first 1000 words
babies learn. These are humble (keigo) versions of "my mother" and "my
father". It is not until they become teenagers that they start to use those
words correctly and naturally. What they learn instead is ママ and パパ, as shown
in the list above.

まんま is a word used only in babyhood. おなかすいた is too long, so parents usually
teach まんま first.




According to one survey introduced in [this
article](https://ddnavi.com/news/366066/a/), here is the list of most common
words a baby **says** first in their life:

Rank | Japanese | English  
---|---|---  
1 | ばあ | (Peek-a-)Boo  
2 | まんま | I'm hungry  
3 | わんわん | doggie  
4 | ママ | Mom  
5 | パパ | Dad  
6 | あっ | Ah! / Hey!  
7 | はい | Yeah / Here you go  
8 | バイバイ | Bye-bye  
9 | あーあ | Uh-oh  
10 | アンパンマン | [Anpanman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman)  
  
(Note that this is not the list of first 10 words babies **learn**. Babies
usually understand many words before they learn to say them out loud.)

I'm pretty certain that はは and ちち are not even in the list of first 1000 words
babies learn. These are humble (keigo) versions of "my mother" and "my
father". It is not until they become teenagers that they start to use those
words correctly and naturally. What they learn instead is ママ and パパ, as shown
in the list above.

まんま is a word used only in babyhood. おなかすいた is too long, so parents usually
teach まんま first.

