Introduction to Japanese Honorific Language

In Brief

Japanese 敬語（けいご）, or honorific language, expresses a relationship as well as a message. 尊敬語（そんけいご） raises the person being described, 謙譲語（けんじょうご） presents the speaker or the speaker's group humbly in relation to someone else, and 丁寧語（ていねいご） makes the sentence polite for the listener. The key question is therefore not simply “How formal is this?” but also “Whose action is it, and whom am I addressing?”

Overview

English can show respect through titles, careful wording, and tone: “Would you like to sit down?” sounds more courteous than “Sit.” Japanese does this too, but it also has a more systematic set of verb forms and special words. The verb meaning “go,” for example, can appear as 行きます in ordinary polite speech, いらっしゃいます when respectfully describing someone else's action, or 参ります when humbly describing your own or your group's action.

This introduction is a B1 overview of the system. You do not need to memorize every special verb at once. First learn to identify the actor (the person who performs the action), the addressee (the person being spoken to), and, for humble language, the person toward whom the action is directed. Those roles explain why two polite-looking forms are not interchangeable.

You will encounter keigo in shops, workplaces, schools, announcements, emails, interviews, and conversations with customers or senior people. It is also relational rather than a fixed label attached to one person. Your manager may receive respectful language when you speak to them, but when you represent your company to a customer, that same manager belongs to your “inside” group and may be described without elevating them.

How It Works

The three-way foundation

Type	Japanese term	What it does	Typical focus	Simple example
Respectful language	尊敬語	Elevates the person whose action or state is described	The teacher, customer, manager, guest, or another respected person	先生がいらっしゃいます。
Humble language	謙譲語	Presents the speaker or the speaker's group humbly, usually in relation to a respected person	I/we perform an action toward or for that person	私が参ります。
Polite language	丁寧語	Makes the utterance courteous to the addressee	The sentence ending and overall tone	ここに本があります。

These categories answer different questions. 尊敬語 and 謙譲語 describe social direction: who is elevated or presented humbly. 丁寧語 concerns how politely the sentence is addressed to the listener. They can therefore combine:

• 先生がお帰りになる。 — respectful, but plain in sentence ending
• 先生がお帰りになります。 — respectful and polite
• 私がご案内する。 — humble, but plain in sentence ending
• 私がご案内します。 — humble and polite

丁寧語: the familiar polite base

The です／ます forms are the foundation of polite interaction. They do not by themselves raise the grammatical subject (the person or thing the sentence is about) or lower the speaker.

Plain style	Polite style	Meaning
行く	行きます	go / will go
読んだ	読みました	read
静かだ	静かです	is quiet
学生ではない	学生ではありません	is not a student
ある	あります / ございます	exist; there is

ございます is a more formal polite counterpart of あります. It is used for inanimate existence and in fixed expressions such as ありがとうございます. It does not replace います, which is used for animate beings.

A sentence in です／ます style is polite, but it may still be unsuitable if you use an ordinary verb where the setting calls for respect or humility. Conversely, using every possible honorific form can sound stiff or excessive. Keigo is about an appropriate relationship, not maximum decoration.

尊敬語: describe the other person's action respectfully

Use respectful language when the actor deserves elevation in the current context. There are two major mechanisms.

Special respectful verbs

Ordinary verb	Respectful form	Core meaning
行く・来る・いる	いらっしゃる	go, come, be
言う	おっしゃる	say
見る	ご覧になる	see, look
食べる・飲む	召し上がる	eat, drink
する	なさる	do
知っている	ご存じだ	know
くれる	くださる	give to me/us

Several of these have slightly unusual ます forms: いらっしゃいます, おっしゃいます, なさいます, and くださいます, not forms with り／し before ます.

The productive pattern お／ご〜になる

For many verbs, respectful language can be built with:

お + verb stem + になる

The verb stem is the part before ます: 読みます → 読み, 待ちます → 待ち.

• 読む → お読みになる
• 待つ → お待ちになる
• 帰る → お帰りになる

Words of Chinese origin often take ご instead of お, especially nouns used with する:

• 利用する → ご利用になる
• 説明する → ご説明になる

This is a useful pattern, but lexical convention matters: not every verb naturally fits it, and common special forms such as 召し上がる or ご覧になる are generally preferred where established.

謙譲語: describe your side's action humbly

Humble language normally applies to actions by 私, 私たち, or someone treated as part of the speaker's group. It often highlights how that action relates to a respected recipient: visiting them, asking them, showing them something, or doing something for them.

Special humble verbs

Ordinary verb	Humble form	Core meaning
行く・来る	参る / 伺う	go, come / visit, call on
いる	おる	be
言う	申す / 申し上げる	say, be called / say to someone respectfully
見る	拝見する	see, look at
聞く・尋ねる・訪ねる	伺う	hear, ask, visit
食べる・飲む・もらう	いただく	eat, drink, receive
する	いたす	do
会う	お目にかかる	meet
知っている	存じている / 存じ上げている	know a fact / know a person

The productive pattern お／ご〜する

A common humble pattern is:

お + verb stem + する or ご + Chinese-origin noun + する

• 持つ → お持ちする
• 届ける → お届けする
• 案内する → ご案内する
• 説明する → ご説明する

The polite versions use します: お持ちします, ご案内します. The subject is normally the speaker or the speaker's side. Saying 先生がお持ちします would wrongly apply a humble form to the teacher unless the teacher is being represented as part of your own group in a special context.

A practical decision process

When choosing a form, work through these questions:

1. Who performs the action? If it is a respected person, consider 尊敬語. If it is you or your group acting toward someone respected, consider 謙譲語.
2. Who is listening? Use 丁寧語 when the relationship or setting calls for polite sentence endings.
3. Which groups are “inside” and “outside”? Japanese often distinguishes 内（うち）, your side, from 外（そと）, the other side. In business, your company is usually 内 when speaking to a customer.
4. Is there an established special verb? Prefer おっしゃる, 拝見する, and similar conventional forms where appropriate.
5. Would a simpler polite form be more natural? Among friends, family, and close peers, full keigo may create unnecessary distance.

Examples in Context

Japanese	English	Note
先生がいらっしゃいます。	The teacher is here.	いらっしゃる respectfully describes the teacher.
お名前は何とおっしゃいますか。	What is your name?	Literally asks what the person says their name is; respectful 言う.
部長はもうお帰りになりました。	The department manager has already gone home.	お〜になる elevates the manager's action.
こちらの資料をご覧ください。	Please look at these materials.	ご覧 is the respectful form associated with 見る.
何を召し上がりますか。	What will you have to eat or drink?	Respectful 食べる／飲む, common in hospitality.
私が参ります。	I will go.	参る humbly describes the speaker's movement.
明日、先生の研究室に伺います。	I will visit the teacher's office tomorrow.	伺う presents the visit humbly toward the teacher.
その写真を拝見しました。	I saw that photograph.	拝見する is humble 見る.
私からご説明いたします。	I will explain it.	The speaker's action is humble; いたす is humble する.
荷物をお持ちします。	I will carry your luggage.	お〜する marks a service performed by the speaker.
会議室はこちらでございます。	The meeting room is this way.	Formal polite ございます; no person is being elevated.
田中はただいま席を外しております。	Tanaka is away from their desk at the moment.	A company member is described humbly to an outsider.
社長がお客様にご説明になりました。	The company president explained it to the customer.	Respectful form when the president is treated as the elevated actor in this context.
社長の佐藤がご説明いたします。	Our president, Sato, will explain it.	To an external customer, the president belongs to the speaker's side, so humble language is possible.

The last two examples show why a job title alone does not determine the form. The speaker's relationship to the people in the conversation matters.

Common Mistakes

Using humble language for the person you want to honor

• Wrong: 先生が参ります。 (intended: “The teacher will come.”)
• Right: 先生がいらっしゃいます。
• Why: 参る presents the actor humbly. To elevate the teacher as actor, use respectful いらっしゃる.

Using respectful language for yourself

• Wrong: 私がご覧になります。
• Right: 私が拝見します。
• Why: ご覧になる elevates the person who sees. For your own act of looking at something associated with the respected person, use humble 拝見する.

Assuming ます is respectful language

• Wrong assumption: 社長が言いました must be 尊敬語 because it ends in ました.
• Better: 社長がおっしゃいました。
• Why: 言いました is 丁寧語: it is polite to the listener. おっしゃいました is both respectful toward the manager and polite to the listener.

Applying お／ご mechanically

• Wrong: お食べになります。 as the default formal form
• Better: 召し上がります。
• Why: Although productive patterns are useful, established special verbs are often more natural. Prefix choice also depends on the word; it cannot be predicted perfectly from spelling alone.

Elevating your own group to an outsider

• Awkward to a customer: 社長さんはいらっしゃいません。
• Better: 社長の佐藤はおりません。
• Why: When representing your company to a customer, your president is normally part of your inside group. Avoid さん on your own colleague's name or title and use humble おる for their absence.

Stacking honorifics unnecessarily

• Overdone: お召し上がりになられますか。
• Natural: 召し上がりますか。
• Why: 召し上がる is already respectful. Adding further respectful machinery creates 二重敬語, “double keigo.” Some stacked forms occur in real speech, but learners are safer using one clear honorific form.

Usage Notes

Respect is contextual, not a permanent ranking

Age and status matter, but so do role, setting, familiarity, and group membership. A teacher commonly receives respectful language from a student. A shop employee generally uses respectful language for a customer and humble language for the employee's own service. Close colleagues may use ordinary です／ます speech even when one is senior, depending on workplace culture.

This differs from English mainly in grammatical direction. English courtesy often softens the request itself—“Could you possibly check this?”—while Japanese may also change the verb according to who checks it: ご確認ください asks the other person respectfully; 確認いたします states that the speaker will check it humbly.

Titles, names, and reference to your own side

Titles such as 先生, 社長, and 部長 can function as forms of address or follow a name: 田中先生. In outside-facing business speech, however, speakers usually avoid honorific suffixes for members of their own organization. This does not mean disrespecting one's manager; it means representing the whole organization as the inside group.

Requests and service expressions

Keigo appears frequently in formulaic expressions. It is efficient to learn them as complete units:

• 少々お待ちください。 — Please wait a moment.
• かしこまりました。 — Certainly; understood. (formal service response)
• 承知しました。 — Understood.
• 恐れ入りますが、もう一度お願いいたします。 — I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you please say/do that once more?

A formula can be grammatically correct yet too formal for a casual conversation. With a friend, ちょっと待って or ちょっと待ってください is usually more natural than a customer-service formula.

Politeness is not the same as warmth

More keigo can create respectful distance, but distance is not always socially better. Plain style among close friends can signal intimacy. Polite style can be warm and neutral. Full respectful and humble language is most useful when roles are clearly unequal or institutionally defined, or when careful professional courtesy is expected.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

The traditional three-way model is the best starting point, but modern Japanese reference grammar may use a more detailed classification. In the framework promoted by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, humble language is divided into 謙譲語Ⅰ and 謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）, and 美化語（びかご）, beautifying or refined wording, is listed separately. This yields five categories rather than three.

謙譲語Ⅰ lowers an action in relation to the person toward whom it is directed, as in 先生のところに伺う. 謙譲語Ⅱ / 丁重語 presents the speaker's action formally to the addressee without necessarily elevating a recipient, as in 明日、東京へ参ります or 私が担当いたします. At B1, it is enough to recognize both under the practical umbrella of humble language; the distinction becomes useful when analyzing why a humble-looking form can occur without an explicit honored recipient.

美化語 includes refined forms such as お茶, お料理, and ご飯. The prefix may make the expression sound conventional, neat, or refined rather than directly honoring one person. Not every お／ご prefix is therefore respectful or humble, and many prefixed words are simply established vocabulary.

There are also two respectful patterns that learners will hear beyond the core introduced here:

• お／ご〜くださる describes a respected person's favorable action: 先生がご説明くださいました (“The teacher kindly explained it”).
• お／ご〜いただく presents receiving that action humbly: 先生にご説明いただきました (“I/we received an explanation from the teacher”).

These patterns combine honorific direction with the Japanese giving-and-receiving system. They are central to formal requests and acknowledgments, but mastering them is easier after the basic contrast between くださる and いただく is secure.

Finally, actual usage is not perfectly uniform. Speakers sometimes use double keigo, newer service-industry formulas, or forms criticized by traditional style guides. Recognition and appropriate production are different skills: understand common real-world variants, but use established, simple forms in your own speech until you have strong evidence that a local convention prefers something else.

Practice Tips

1. Label the roles before changing the verb. For each practice sentence, mark “actor,” “listener,” and “inside/outside group.” Then choose respectful, humble, or simply polite language. This prevents memorized forms from becoming random synonyms.
2. Learn verbs in three-part sets. Make cards such as 言う → おっしゃる → 申す, with one short situation for each form. Practice complete polite sentences, not isolated dictionary forms.
3. Shadow predictable situations. Listen to shop greetings, telephone calls, interviews, or workplace dramas. Repeat short formulas and note who performs each action. Compare them with how you would express courtesy in English: by title, indirectness, verb choice, or a combination.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Polite Form ます — the sentence-level politeness system on which much practical keigo builds.
• Next step: Respectful Language (尊敬語) — a fuller treatment of forms that elevate another person's actions and states.
• Next step: Humble Language (謙譲語) — a fuller treatment of presenting your own side's actions humbly.
• Advanced connection: Pragmatic Competence — choosing language according to relationships, intentions, setting, and conversational effect.