Japanese can be roughly separated into three levels of politeness: casual, polite, and honorific/humble. So far, we have already gone over the polite forms using 「～です」 and 「～ます」. We will now cover the next level of politeness using honorific and humble forms. You will often hear this type of language in any customer/consumer type situations such as fast food counters, restaurants, etc. For now, the first thing to remember is that the speaker always considers himself/herself to be at the lowest level. So any actions performed by oneself are in humble form while actions performed by anyone else seen from the view of the speaker uses the honorific form.
Set Expressions
Vocabulary
- する (exception) – to do
- なさる – to do (honorific)
- 致す 【いた・す】 (u-verb) – to do (humble)
- 行く 【い・く】 (u-verb) – to go
- いらっしゃる – to be; to go; to come (honorific)
- おいでになる – to be; to go; to come (honorific)
- 参る 【まい・る】 (u-verb) – to go; to come (humble)
- いる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate)
- おる (ru-verb) – to exist (animate) (humble)
- 見る 【み・る】 (ru-verb) – to see
- ご覧になる 【ご・らん・になる】 – to see (honorific)
- 拝見する 【はい・けん・する】 – to see (humble)
- 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
- 伺う 【うかが・う】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen (humble)
- 言う 【い・う】 (u-verb) – to say
- おっしゃる – to say (honorific)
- 申す 【もう・す】 (u-verb) – to say (humble)
- 申し上げる 【もう・し・あ・げる】 (u-verb) – to say (humble)
- あげる (ru-verb) – to give; to raise
- 差し上げる 【さ・し・あ・げる】 (ru-verb) – to give; to raise (humble)
- くれる (ru-verb) – to give
- 下さる 【くだ・さる】 – to give (honorific)
- もらう (u-verb) – to receive
- いただく (u-verb) – to receive; to eat; to drink (humble)
- 食べる 【た・べる】 (ru-verb) – to eat
- 召し上がる 【め・し・あ・がる】 (u-verb) – to eat; to drink (honorific)
- 飲む 【の・む】 (u-verb) – to drink
- 知る 【し・る】 (u-verb) – to know
- ご存じ 【ご・ぞん・じ】 – knowing (honorific)
- 存じる 【ぞん・じる】 (ru-verb) – to know (humble)
- ござる – to be (formal)
- もう – already
- 仕事 【し・ごと】 – job
- 何 【なに／なん】 – what
- 推薦状 【すい・せん・じょう】 – letter of recommendation
- 書く 【か・く】 (u-verb) – to write
- どちら – which way
- 今日 【きょう】 – today
- 私 【わたし】 – me; myself; I
- レポート – report
- 失礼 【しつ・れい】 – discourtesy
The difficult part of learning honorific and humble language is that there are a number of words that have separate verbs for honorific and humble forms. Anything that does not have its own special expression fall under the general rules of humble and honorific conjugations that we will cover next.
Honorific and Humble Verbs
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Honorific |
Humble |
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に |
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（です） |
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Honorific verbs with special conjugations
A number of these verbs do not follow the normal masu-conjugation rules and they include: 「」、「」、「」、「」、 and 「」 (which we will soon cover). For all masu-form tenses of these verbs, instead of the 「る」 becoming a 「り」 as it does with normal u-verbs, it instead becomes an 「い」. All other conjugations besides the masu-form do not change from regular u-verbs.
ます-conjugations
| Plain |
ます-form |
Past ます-form |
Negative ます-form |
Past-negative ます-form |
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Examples of honorific form
We can now begin to see that 「」 is just a special conjugation of 「」 which is the honorific version of 「」. Let’s look at some actual examples. Since these examples are all questions directed directly to someone (second person), they all use the honorific form.
- アリスさん、か。
Alice-san, did (you) eat already?
- でをんですか。
What are you doing at work?
- をんですか。
You’re going to give me the favor of writing a recommendation letter?
- からか。
Where did you come from?
- は、へか。
Where are you going today?
Examples of humble form
The following examples are all actions done by the speaker so they all use the humble form.
- はキムと。
As for me, (people) say Kim. (I am called Kim.)
- がをか。
Will I be able to receive the favor of getting my report looked at?
- 。
Excuse me. (lit: I am doing a discourtesy.)
Other substitutions
Vocabulary
- こちら – this way
- 私 【わたし】 – me, myself, I
- 部屋 【へ・や】 – room
- ござる – to be (formal)
- お手洗い 【お・て・あら・い】 – bathroom
- この – this （abbr. of これの）
- ビル – building
- ～階 【～かい】 – counter for story/floor
- いい (i-adj) – good
- よろしい (i-adj) – good (formal)
- 悪い 【わる・い】 (i-adj) – bad
- すいません – sorry (polite)
- ごめん – sorry (casual)
- ごめんなさい – sorry (polite)
- すみません – sorry (polite)
- 申し訳ありません 【もう・し・わけ・ありません】 – sorry (formal)
- 言い訳 【い・い・わけ】 – excuse
- 恐れ入ります 【おそ・れ・い・ります】 – sorry (formal)
- 恐縮です 【きょう・しゅく・です】 – sorry (formal)
- ～様 【～さま】 – honorific name suffix
- ～さん – polite name suffix
- お客様 【お・きゃく・さま】 – customer (formal)
- 神様 【かみ・さま】 – god (formal)
In addition to these set expressions, there are some words that also have more polite counterparts. Probably the most important is the politer version of 「」, which is 「」. This verb can be used for both inanimate and animate objects. It is neither honorific nor humble but it is a step above 「」 in politeness. However, unless you want to sound like a samurai, 「」 is always used in the polite form: 「」.
By extension, the politer version of 「です」 is 「で」. This is essentially the masu-form conjugation of 「で」, which comes from 「で」 literally meaning, “to exist as” (to be covered much later).
Examples
- は、のです。
Over here is my room.
- は、ので。
This way is my room.
- はのに。
The bathroom is on the second floor of this building.
- はのに。
The bathroom is on the second floor of this building.
Other examples include 「」, which is more formally expressed as 「」. There are also six different ways to say, “I’m sorry” (not counting 「ね」 or slight inflection changes like 「」).
Successively politer expressions for apologizing:
- 。
- 。
- 。
- 。 ( is the humble form of )
- 。
- です。
In addition, the politest suffix for names is 「」, one level above 「さん」. You won’t be using this suffix too often in actual speech even if you speak to that person in honorific/humble speech. However, expect to use it when writing letters even to people you are somewhat familiar with. Also, service people such as cashiers or waitresses/waiters will normally refer to the customer as 「」. Of course, royalty and deities are always accompanied by 「」 such as 「」.
Honorific and Humble Conjugations
Vocabulary
- お酒 【お・さけ】 – alcohol
- お茶 【お・ちゃ】 – tea
- お金 【お・かね】 – money
- 音読み 【おん・よ・み】 – Chinese reading
- 意見 【い・けん】 – opinion
- ご飯 【ご・はん】 – rice; meal
- 訓読み 【くん・よ・み】 – Japanese reading
- 仕事 【し・ごと】 – job
- お好み焼き 【お・この・み・や・き】 – okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancake)
- お土産 【お・みやげ】 – souvenir
- 返事 【へん・じ】 – reply
- 先生 【せん・せい】 – teacher
- 見える 【み・える】 (ru-verb) – to be visible
- なる (u-verb) – to become
- もう – already
- 帰る 【かえ・る】 (u-verb) – to go home
- 店内 【てん・ない】 – store interior
- 召し上がる 【め・し・あ・がる】 (ru-verb) – to eat; to drink (honorific)
- 二重敬語 【に・じゅう・けい・ご】 – redundant honorific
- 下さる 【くだ・さる】 – to give (honorific)
- 少々 【しょう・しょう】 – just a minute; small quantity;
- 待つ 【ま・つ】 (u-verb) – to wait
- こちら – this way
- ご覧下さい 【ご・らん・くだ・さい】 – please look (honorific)
- 閉まる 【し・まる】 (u-verb) – to close
- ドア – door
- 注意 【ちゅう・い】 – caution
- よろしい (i-adj) – good (formal)
- 願う 【ねが・う】 (u-verb) – to wish; to request
- する (exception) – to do
- 聞く 【き・く】 (u-verb) – to ask; to listen
- こと – event, matter
- ある (u-verb) – to exist (inanimate)
- すみません – sorry (polite)
- 千円 【せん・えん】 – 1,000 yen
- 預かる 【あず・かる】 – to look after; to hold on to;
- 致す 【いた・す】 (u-verb) – to do (humble)
For all other verbs without set expressions, there are conjugation rules to change them into honorific and humble forms. They both involve a common practice of attaching a polite prefix 「」. In Japanese, there is an practice of attaching an honorific prefix 「」 to certain (not all) nouns to show politeness. In fact, some words like 「」、 「」、or 「」 come with this prefix so often that it’s become practically the word itself. In general, 「」 is written in hiragana as either 「ご」 for words read as （e.g. ご、） or 「お」 for words read as （e.g. 、 お）. In fact, you may have been using this prefix already without realizing it like 「」 or 「」. There are some exceptions to this rule such as 「お」. Luckily since 「」 is rarely written in kanji, identifying the exceptions should not really be a problem.
Honorific Form
The honorific form of verbs that are not among the set honorific expressions given above can be formed in two different ways.
Honorific Conjugation 1: お + stem + に +
This kind of makes sense if you think of it as a person becoming the honorific state of a verb. All subsequent conjugations follow the normal rules of conjugating the u-verb 「」. To be honest, this type of sentence formulation is rarely used.
- はおにか。
Have you seen the teacher?
Honorific Conjugation 2: お + stem + です
- おですか。
You’re going home already?
- でおですか。
Will you be dining in?
Service people want to be extra polite so they will often use this type of “double honorific” conjugation or (in this case, the honorific 「」 combined with the honorific conjugation). Whether it’s necessary or grammatically proper is another story.
Using 「」 with honorifics
You can also use 「」 with a honorific verb by replacing 「に」 with 「」. This is useful for when you want to ask somebody to do something but still use a honorific verb.
Yet another often-used expression.
- お。- Please wait a moment.
Similarly, with 「に」, you simply replace 「に」 with 「」.
This works for other nouns as well. For example, riding the trains…
- にご。
Please be careful of the closing doors.
Humble Form
Humble verbs are formed in the following fashion.
Humble Conjugation: お + stem +
You’ve probably already heard the first example many times before but now you know exactly where it comes from.
- お。
I properly make request.
- 、おがが。
Teacher, there’s something I want to ask you.
- 、お。
Sorry, I made you wait (causative form).
- からお。
We’ll be holding on [from?] your 1000 yen.
You’ll hear something like example 4 when, for example, you need to get change after paying 1000 yen. Again, the where 「」 has been converted to the humble 「」 form when it’s already in the お+stem+ humble form. Some Japanese people complain that this makes no sense and that 「から」 should really be 「を」.
Making honorific requests
Vocabulary
- 下さる 【くだ・さる】 – to give (honorific)
- いらっしゃる – to be; to go; to come (honorific)
- なさる – to do (honorific)
- おっしゃる – to say (honorific)
- する (exception) – to do
- いらっしゃいませ – please come in (formal)
- いらっしゃい – please come in
- ありがとうございました – thank you (polite)
- また – again
- 越す 【こ・す】 – to go over
- どうぞ – please
- ゆっくり – slowly
We learned how to make polite requests using 「～」 in a previous section and we just looked at how to use honorific verbs with requests as well. However, there is yet another way to make requests using honorific verbs. This grammar only applies to the honorific verbs with special 「～ます」 conjugations that we just covered. This includes 「」、「」、「」、and 「」. I’ve never actually seen this used with 「」, but it is grammatically possible.
Making requests for honorific actions
- Conjugate the honorific verb to the special masu-conjugation and replace the last 「す」 with 「せ」
Examples
- → →
- → →
- An abbreviated and less formal version of this is to simply remove the 「ます」 after conjugating to the special masu-form
Examples
- → →
- → →
Now you finally know where grammar such as 「なさい」 and 「」 actually came from. Let’s look at a few quick examples.
Examples
You’ll probably hear this one a million times every time you enter some kind of store in Japan.
However, a middle-aged sushi chef will probably use the abbreviated version.
Some more examples…
- 。お。
Thank you very much. Please come again.
- 、ご。
Please take your time and relax.