How to say “sunfish” in Japanese | マンボウ (manbō)

The Japanese vocabulary「マンボウ (manbō)」means “sunfish.” Please learn the pronunciation and the example sentences.

Japanese Vocabulary and the Meaning

If you do not know why the cell with “Hiragana” is blank, please read this page.

Key Wordマンボウ
Hiragana
Romaji Readingmanbō
English Meaningsunfish

The Correct Japanese Pronunciations

Please learn the pronunciation by watching the attached video. You can also learn example sentences.

Our YouTube channel: Ichiyo’s Japanese YouTube Channel

The example Japanese sentences

It is important to have skills in both non-honorific and honorific languages in order to use Japanese correctly.

A sunfish ate a jellyfish.

Plain form:

マンボウがクラゲをべた。
Manbō ga kurage o tabeta.

Polite form:

マンボウがクラゲを食べました。
Manbō ga kurage o tabemashita.


The ocean sunfish is a fish with many mysteries.

Plain form:

マンボウは、なぞおおさかなだ。
Manbō wa, nazo ga ōi sakana da.

Polite form:

マンボウは、謎が多い魚です。
Manbō wa, nazo ga ōi sakanadesu.


Ocean sunfish lay large numbers of eggs.

Plain form:

マンボウは、大量たいりょうたまごむ。
Manbō wa, tairyō ni tamago o umu.

Polite form:

マンボウは、大量に卵を産みます。
Manbō wa, tairyō ni tamago o umimasu.


Ocean sunfish are related to pufferfish.

Plain form:

マンボウはフグの仲間なかまだ。
Manbō wa fugu no nakama da.

Polite form:

マンボウはフグの仲間です。
Manbō wa fugu no nakama desu.


Baby ocean sunfish look like Konpeito.

Plain form:

マンボウの子どもは金平糖こんぺいとうのような姿すがたをしている。
Manbō no kodomo wa konpeitō no yōna sugata o shite iru.

Polite form:

マンボウの子どもは金平糖のような姿をしています。
Manbō no kodomo wa konpeitō no yōna sugata o shite imasu.

「金平糖」is a traditional Japanese star-shaped sugar candy.


The skeleton of an ocean sunfish resembles that of a bird.

Plain form:

マンボウの骨格こっかくは、まるでとりのようだ。
Manbō no kokkaku wa, marude tori no yō da.

Polite form:

マンボウの骨格は、まるで鳥のようでです。
Manbō no kokkaku wa, marude tori no yō desu.

Japanese private online lesson
To Have Correct Japanese Language Skills

We teach Japanese to non-native Japanese learners. From our experience, 90% of Japanese learners use incorrect Japanese and often speak rudely, even though they have lived in Japan for many years.

Therefore, we created two services. One is our "Private Japanese Conversation Lesson" and the other is our "Daily Japanese Mail Support" service.

In the "Private Japanese Conversation Lesson," you can talk with a native Japanese teacher. Let us practice conversation together!

private Japanese conversation lesson

In the "Daily Japanese Mail Support" service, we will check your Japanese daily through email. Please show us the Japanese sentences that you wrote, your pronunciations, your handwritten Japanese characters, and so on. You can also ask us questions about Japanese.

Daily Japanese Mail Support

If you are a member of our private lesson or "Daily Japanese Mail Support," we can check and correct your Japanese every day.

The details are on our website: https://ichiwebsite.com/

Fish and Sea Creatures