The question every Japanese convenience store asks you (温めますか)

温めますか (atatamemasu ka) means “Shall I heat it up?” It’s what the clerk at a Japanese convenience store asks when you buy a bento or another ready meal: say はい (hai), yes, and it goes into the microwave for you. The kanji at the front, 温, means warm, and the video reads its parts as water, the sun and a dish.

The question, word by word

温めます (atatamemasu) is the polite form of 温める (atatameru), to warm something up. か (ka) at the end makes it a question. Japanese doesn’t need a subject here, so the “shall I” is simply understood: word for word, the clerk is asking “Warm it up?”

You’ll hear a few versions. お弁当、温めますか (obentou, atatamemasu ka) is “Shall I heat up your bento?”, and こちら温めますか (kochira atatamemasu ka) is “Shall I heat this up?” In quick speech the word often comes out as あっためますか (attamemasu ka). All of them ask the same thing.

What 温 says

Today’s 温 is 氵, water, on the left, and on the right 日, which looks like the sun, above 皿, a dish. Water, the sun and a dish make a warm meal: a handy way to remember the shape, and the one in the video.

The sun is a newcomer, though. In the older form, 溫, that part was 囚, a person inside a frame. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, explains it as feeding a prisoner from a dish, an act of kindness. The modern dictionary Dong Chinese reads the same picture as a person sitting in a tub of warm water. Nobody knows for sure which is right, but neither has a sun in it. The form used today, 温, is an old simplified variant that turned the boxed person into 日.

Two kinds of warm

温かい (atatakai) has a twin, 暖かい, which sounds exactly the same. Use 温 for food and drink, and for warm-hearted people. Use 暖 for the weather and the air in a room: a warm day, a warm room. The verbs follow the same rule: スープを温める (suupu o atatameru) is to warm up soup, but 部屋を暖める (heya o atatameru) is to warm a room.

How to use it

• お弁当、温めますか。

  Obentou, atatamemasu ka.

  Shall I heat up your bento?

• はい、お願いします。

  Hai, onegai shimasu.

  Yes, please.

• いえ、そのままで大丈夫です。

  Ie, sono mama de daijoubu desu.

  No, it's fine as it is.

• お箸はおつけしますか。

  Ohashi wa otsuke shimasu ka.

  Would you like chopsticks?

• 温かい飲み物はどこですか。

  Atatakai nomimono wa doko desu ka.

  Where are the hot drinks?

• The polite no is 大丈夫です (daijoubu desu), “I’m fine”. It’s gentler than a flat いいえ (iie), no.
• はい、お願いします is all you need for yes. Then wait a moment by the counter while it heats.
• Chopsticks come next. After the bento question, you’ll often be asked about chopsticks, お箸 (ohashi), and whether you need a bag.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Water (氵), a sun (日) and a dish (皿): picture your bento warming in the sun. It isn’t the kanji’s real history, but it’s the quickest way to read 温 at the counter.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Sources

• Jisho (JMdict): 温める
• Wiktionary: 温
• Dong Chinese: 𥁕, the right side of 溫
• Agency for Cultural Affairs: 異字同訓の漢字の使い分け例 (温 and 暖, in Japanese)

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.