Respectful Language (尊敬語) in Japanese

In Brief

尊敬語 (sonkeigo) raises the person being spoken about by using a respectful form for that person's action or state. Its main patterns are お/ご + verb stem + になる and special verbs such as いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, ご覧になる, and 召し上がる. Use these forms for customers, guests, superiors, teachers, and others whose position you are respecting—not for your own actions.

Overview

Japanese 敬語 (keigo, honorific language) does more than make a sentence generally polite. It presents the people in a situation from a particular social viewpoint. 尊敬語 is the branch that elevates the subject (the person who performs an action or is in a state). For example, in 先生はどこにいらっしゃいますか, the respectful verb presents the teacher's being somewhere with respect.

This distinction has no direct grammatical equivalent in English. English can sound respectful through titles, indirect wording, and tone—“Would the professor like to sit down?”—but the verb sit itself does not change according to the professor's status. Japanese often marks that relationship inside the verb. You therefore need to ask not just “Is this conversation formal?” but also “Whose action is this?”

At B1, concentrate on the productive pattern お/ご〜になる, the most common special verbs, and correct choice of subject. You will hear them in customer service, workplaces, schools, formal introductions, announcements, and conversations with unfamiliar adults. The choice is contextual rather than mechanical: a manager may be spoken of respectfully by an employee inside the company, but not necessarily when that employee speaks to an outside customer.

How It Works

The central question: who is acting?

The subject (the person or thing that performs the action or is described) is the person elevated by sonkeigo. It is often marked by は or が, though Japanese may leave it unspoken when context makes it clear.

• 先生がお話しになります。 — The teacher will speak.
• 社長はもうお帰りになりました。 — The president has already gone home.

The speaker does not use these forms to elevate their own action. “I will explain” is not 私がご説明になります. A speaker normally uses an ordinary polite form or 謙譲語 (kenjōgo, humble language, which lowers the speaker's own action in relation to someone else): 私がご説明します or 私がご説明いたします.

Productive pattern: お/ご + stem + になる

For many verbs, sonkeigo can be formed with a prefix, a verb stem (the part before ます), and になる.

Dictionary form	Respectful form	Meaning
帰る	お帰りになる	go home, return
読む	お読みになる	read
話す	お話しになる	speak
待つ	お待ちになる	wait
使う	お使いになる	use
利用する	ご利用になる	use, make use of
出席する	ご出席になる	attend

For native Japanese vocabulary, お is usual. For many words of Chinese origin, especially する compounds, ご is usual. This is a useful tendency, not a rule you should apply blindly: established vocabulary determines the natural prefix. Learn frequent expressions as complete units, such as お電話, お食事, ご利用, and ご出席.

The final なる carries tense, negation, and politeness:

Form	Example	Meaning
Non-past polite	お読みになります	reads / will read
Past polite	お読みになりました	read / has read
Negative polite	お読みになりません	does not / will not read
Plain non-past	お読みになる	reads / will read
Plain past	お読みになった	read

Sonkeigo and です・ます politeness are separate dimensions. お読みになる is respectful toward the reader but grammatically plain in its ending; お読みになります is both respectful toward that person and polite toward the listener.

Frequent special verbs

Common verbs often have a dedicated respectful replacement. These usually sound more established than a mechanically built form.

Ordinary verb	Respectful verb	Main meanings
いる・行く・来る	いらっしゃる	be; go; come
言う	おっしゃる	say
見る	ご覧になる	see; look at; watch
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
寝る	お休みになる	sleep; go to bed
着る	お召しになる	wear; put on

Several of these have unusual ます-forms: いらっしゃいます, おっしゃいます, and なさいます, not ×いらっしゃります, ×おっしゃります, or ×なさります. ご存じだ behaves like an expression with だ/です: ご存じですか “Do you know?”

The meaning of いらっしゃる comes from context:

• 先生は研究室にいらっしゃいます。 — The teacher is in the office.
• 明日、京都へいらっしゃいますか。 — Will you go to Kyoto tomorrow?
• お客様がいらっしゃいました。 — The guest/customer has arrived.

Respectful requests: お/ご〜ください

To respectfully ask someone to perform an action, use お/ご + stem + ください:

• こちらでお待ちください。 — Please wait here.
• この用紙にご記入ください。 — Please fill in this form.
• どうぞお入りください。 — Please come in.

This pattern respects the addressee's action, but it is still a direct request. In especially sensitive situations, longer indirect wording may sound softer. Also learn fixed customer-service expressions as units rather than generating them word by word.

The respectful passive-shaped form

A verb ending in 〜(ら)れる can sometimes express respect:

• 先生はもう帰られました。 — The teacher has already left.
• 部長も会議に出席されます。 — The department head will also attend the meeting.

This looks identical to the passive form, so context must show whether it means “is respected as doing” or “is acted upon.” It is often less explicitly elevated than a special verb or お〜になる form. For a solid B1 foundation, prioritize お帰りになる and the established special verbs, while learning to recognize this alternative.

Examples in Context

Japanese	English	Note
社長はお帰りになりました。	The president has gone home.	Productive お〜になる pattern
先生はどこにいらっしゃいますか。	Where is the teacher?	いらっしゃる means “be” here
何をご覧になりますか。	What will you watch?	Special form of 見る
山田様は何とおっしゃいましたか。	What did Mr./Ms. Yamada say?	Respectful past of 言う
コーヒーを召し上がりますか。	Would you like coffee?	召し上がる also covers drinking
どうぞお召し上がりください。	Please eat.	Conventional respectful invitation
こちらの資料をお読みになりますか。	Will you read this material?	Stem of 読みます is 読み
会長は式にご出席になります。	The chairperson will attend the ceremony.	ご with 出席する
先生はこのニュースをご存じですか。	Does the teacher know this news?	ご存じ is not ご存じになる
お客様がロビーでお待ちになっています。	The guest is waiting in the lobby.	Respectful progressive action
こちらにお名前をご記入ください。	Please enter your name here.	Respectful request
どちらからいらっしゃいましたか。	Where have you come from?	Respectful question to the addressee
部長は青いジャケットをお召しになっています。	The department head is wearing a blue jacket.	お召しになる for clothing
社長は来週アメリカへ行かれます。	The president will go to the United States next week.	Respectful 〜られる form

Common Mistakes

Using sonkeigo for your own action

• Wrong: 私は明日そちらにいらっしゃいます。
• Right: 私は明日そちらに伺います。 / 私は明日そちらに行きます。
• Why: いらっしゃる raises the person who goes. Use humble 伺う when your movement is directed toward the respected person's side, or ordinary polite 行きます when humility is unnecessary.

Keeping the ordinary verb when a special form is expected

• Awkward in a clearly honorific context: 先生は何と言いましたか。
• Better: 先生は何とおっしゃいましたか。
• Why: 言う has the common dedicated respectful form おっしゃる. The ordinary polite form is grammatically correct, but it does not carry the intended respect.

Building the irregular ます-form incorrectly

• Wrong: 社長がいらっしゃります。
• Right: 社長がいらっしゃいます。
• Why: いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, and なさる change to いらっしゃいます, おっしゃいます, and なさいます before ます.

Adding になる to an established special verb

• Overbuilt: 先生がおっしゃりになります。
• Right: 先生がおっしゃいます。
• Why: おっしゃる is already respectful. Stacking another honorific pattern is unnecessary and is commonly criticized as 二重敬語 (nijū keigo, double honorific language).

Confusing ご存じ with 知っています

• Wrong for yourself: 私はその方をご存じです。
• Right: 私はその方を知っています。 / その方を存じています。
• Why: ご存じだ respectfully describes another person's knowledge. 存じる is the corresponding humble verb commonly used for the speaker's knowledge.

Assuming every verb accepts お〜になる

• Unnatural: 先生がお見になりました。
• Right: 先生がご覧になりました。
• Why: Frequent verbs often prefer a special respectful form. Learn the core replacements before trying to construct new forms.

Usage Notes

Sonkeigo reflects roles in the current interaction, not a permanent ranking of human worth. A customer is elevated by staff because of the service relationship. A teacher is commonly elevated by a student. Among close friends, using full sonkeigo may sound distant, ceremonious, playful, or ironic rather than simply “more polite.”

Japanese also distinguishes an in-group from an out-group. When speaking to a customer or another company, an employee normally does not elevate their own manager's actions, because the manager belongs to the speaker's group. Thus, an employee might tell a colleague 社長がおっしゃいました, but tell an outside client 社長の田中が申しました “Our president, Tanaka, said...” The second version humbles the speaker's side instead of honoring it.

Titles and respectful verbs often occur together: 先生がおっしゃいました and 田中社長がいらっしゃいます are natural. However, more honorific material is not automatically better. Excessive stacking can sound clumsy, insecure, or like scripted customer-service language.

The prefix choice お versus ご also includes lexical exceptions. Do not treat “Japanese origin = お, Chinese origin = ご” as a perfect test. Exposure and dictionaries are more reliable. In practice, memorizing whole chunks—お待ちになる, ご利用になる, ご覧になる—produces more natural speech.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Sonkeigo, kenjōgo, and polite language

These three labels answer different questions:

Category	What it does	Example
尊敬語	Raises the subject's action	先生がいらっしゃいます。
謙譲語	Lowers the speaker's or in-group person's action toward someone respected	私が先生の所へ伺います。
丁寧語	Makes the utterance polite to the listener	明日行きます。

A sentence can combine categories. 先生がいらっしゃいます contains a respectful verb and a polite ます ending. Choosing correctly depends on both the person acting and the listener.

Relative clauses and plain endings

Before a noun, Japanese uses a plain verb form even in formal prose. Sonkeigo remains present in the vocabulary:

• 先ほどいらっしゃったお客様 — the customer who was here earlier
• 先生がお書きになった本 — the book the teacher wrote

The endings いらっしゃった and お書きになった are plain past forms, but they still honor their subjects. Adding です directly inside the relative clause would be incorrect.

Conventional double honorifics and real usage

Prescriptive guidance warns against forms such as おっしゃられる or お召し上がりになる, because the base verb is already respectful. Real usage is less tidy: some layered expressions are widespread, especially お召し上がりください. Treat that invitation as a conventional expression, but avoid inventing heavily stacked forms. In careful speech, the simpler established form is usually safest: おっしゃる, 召し上がる, ご覧になる.

Ambiguity of 〜(ら)れる

The sentence 先生は褒められました can mean either “The teacher praised [someone]” with respectful られる or “The teacher was praised” as a passive. Particles and context may resolve it, but not always. A dedicated form can be clearer where available. This ambiguity is one reason learners should recognize respectful られる without relying on it for every formal sentence.

Practice Tips

1. Sort by ordinary verb and respectful replacement. Make pairs such as 言う → おっしゃる, 見る → ご覧になる, and 帰る → お帰りになる. Then say one present, past, and question form for each pair.
2. Mark the actor before changing the verb. In every practice sentence, circle the person doing the action. Ask whether that person should be elevated. This prevents the most serious error: using sonkeigo for yourself.
3. Collect complete phrases from real settings. Listen for お待ちください, ご覧ください, いらっしゃいますか, and 召し上がりますか in shops, interviews, dramas, and workplace audio. Record the situation and relationship along with the phrase; social context is part of the grammar.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Honorific Language Introduction — introduces the overall keigo system and the contrast between respectful, humble, and polite language.