First-person pronoun. In modern Japanese, われ is formal, literary, or used in set phrases. In everyday speech, 私 (わたし) or 僕 (ぼく) are more common.
I have chosen this path.
Our country places great importance on peace.
I am the one who knows the truth.
Only with reading われ / わ
Used reflexively or in philosophical contexts. Common in expressions like 我を忘れる (lose oneself) or 我に返る (come to one's senses).
He lost himself in anger.
I came to my senses and looked around.
Only with reading われ / わ
Archaic second-person pronoun, used from a position of superiority or familiarity. Not used in modern Japanese outside historical or literary contexts.
In classical Japanese, 我 was used to mean 'you'.
prefix: familiar/contemptuous (archaic)
Only with reading わ
Archaic prefix わ- attached to names or nouns to express familiarity or contempt. Only found in old texts; not productive in modern Japanese.
The わ in わが君 is an old prefix expressing familiarity.
He declared that he himself was the champion of justice.
自分 is the common modern word for "oneself" in reflexive contexts, while 我 in this sense appears mainly in fixed expressions like 我を忘れる.
僕 is a casual first-person pronoun used mainly by males, whereas 我 is stiff, formal, or archaic and carries no gendered casualness.
俺 is a very informal, masculine way to say "I", while 我 is elevated, literary, and not used in casual conversation.
我 is an old literary first-person pronoun still seen in formal or poetic modern Japanese, whereas 麿 is limited to Heian-court speech and is entirely obsolete today.
we; we as a group; we ourselves
we; us · I; me · you; you lot
myself and others; self and others
self first; scrambling to be first
self-praise
Standard kanji spelling for the pronoun われ. High news frequency.
Kana spelling is common in modern writing, especially when the kanji feels overly formal or literary.
Archaic or literary kanji variant for われ, rarely used in modern writing.
Native Japanese pronoun. The reading われ is the primary modern form; わ is an older, now-obsolete variant. The kanji 我 and 吾 have been used since Old Japanese, with 我 becoming the standard.
in spite of oneself; involuntarily; absently
absentmindedly; in spite of oneself; as if not oneself