Keigo – Japanese politeness in practice
Situations from working life and the honorific and humble forms – what to say and why that one.
First day at a new job: you walk up to your colleagues at their desks
です/ます plus the set phrase お願いします — humble in itself (お〜する), but everyday and unremarkable. A team is not a client: the 申し上げます option reaches for a form that raises the person addressed, and would build a distance nobody asked for.
Examples
- 田中です。よろしくお願いします。
A close university friend you have known since first year asks about lunch
Plain speech, 普通体 — and here that is the right answer, even though this whole section is about register. Keigo would be a step backwards: it would say “we are not that close”, which nobody meant.
Examples
- うん、行く。
A waiter sets the coffee down
いたす lowers the speaker towards the listener, while お〜 directs the action at the guest and raises them — the form does both at once, so it belongs to both groups at once (the character 兼 here means “and”: 謙譲語Ⅰ兼Ⅱ). That is what it is called in 敬語の指針, the 2007 guidelines of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, on which this app is based. In the category list such forms sit under Ⅰ. This is how service speaks to a guest, and it is heard daily in Japan.
Examples
- お待たせいたしました。
Asking a lecturer about a deadline
です/ます plus すみません to open. For a student–lecturer relationship this is the right measure and nothing more is needed.
Examples
- すみません、締め切りはいつですか。
The opening line of an email to a client you already work with
The opening formula for an **ongoing** relationship; in correspondence like that it is written every time. It does two things at once: お世話になる raises the person whose care we are in — the reader — while おります adds modesty towards that same reader. If you are writing to someone for the first time, the formula does not fit: a first letter opens with 突然のご連絡失礼いたします, “forgive me for writing out of the blue”.
Examples
- いつもお世話になっております。
Your first week in a new team: you ask a colleague you met three days ago for a document
In a company ます stays even with someone your own age, and お願いします is a set, courteous request. An office is 内 towards the world, but it is not a home. What separates it from the お願い申し上げます option is 申し上げる, not お願い itself.
Examples
- これ、お願いします。
Answering the company phone
でございます is the most formal 丁寧語: it raises the tone of the utterance, not a person. The company name is not lowered here — the whole utterance is lifted towards the caller.
Examples
- はい、山田商事でございます。
A club senior asks about practice
A 先輩 gets ます and that is all. The relationship is close but not equal, and that is exactly where です/ます lives.
Examples
- はい、行きます。
Asking a passer-by for directions
です/ます with どちら instead of どこ. A stranger in the street is not a client: the politeness should be ordinary, not professional.
Examples
- すみません、駅はどちらですか。
Asking your boss about a document, in-house
Inside the company your boss is a superior and takes the honorific. **The same boss will not take it in front of a client**, because there he stands on our side of the 内/外 line — your own people against outsiders — which we come back to at level 5.
Examples
- 部長はもうご覧になりましたか。
A message to your sister
Siblings are the innermost 内 there is. Any ます here would read as a quarrel or a joke.
Examples
- 今どこ。
In a shop, asking the assistant to show you a watch from the display case
すみません、見せてもらえますか — ですます and もらえますか are entirely enough, and that is 丁寧語. 見せていただけますか, with 謙譲語 (the form that lowers your own action), is correct too and ordinary in a shop; what goes wrong is stacking humility, not the fact that it is the customer speaking.
Examples
- すみません、この時計を見せてもらえますか。
A senior teammate you are not on first-name terms with invites you out after work
すみません at the front and んです at the end — the politeness here is 丁寧語. The reason needs no spelling out: 都合が悪くて is enough, and that is how a refusal is made in Japanese.
Examples
- すみません、その日はちょっと都合が悪くて、行けないんです。
いらっしゃる
to go, come or be — said of the other person
いらっしゃる is the honorific form of 行く・来る・いる. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 明日は何時にいらっしゃいますか。
おっしゃる
to say — said of the other person
おっしゃる is the honorific form of 言う. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- お名前は何とおっしゃいますか。
なさる
to do — said of the other person
なさる is the honorific form of する. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- ご注文はどうなさいますか。
ご覧になる
to look at — said of the other person
ご覧になる is the honorific form of 見る. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- この資料をご覧になりますか。
召し上がる
to eat or drink — said of the other person
召し上がる is the honorific form of 食べる・飲む. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 何を召し上がりますか。
くださる
to give to me, or to do something for me — said of the other person
くださる is the honorific form of くれる. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- いつも手伝ってくださいます。
ご存じだ
to know — said of the other person
ご存じだ is the honorific form of 知っている. It describes the other person's action and raises that person. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- この店をご存じですか。
お休みになる
to go to sleep — said of the other person
お休みになる is the honorific form of 寝る. This is the お〜になる pattern applied to 休む, so the ending is regular. The one thing to memorise is the verb: someone's sleep is spoken of with 休む, not 寝る.
Examples
- 何時にお休みになりますか。
伺う
to go to someone, or to ask them something — said of oneself
伺う is the humble form of 行く・来る・聞く. It describes one's own action and raises **the person it is directed at** — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. Its twin 参る (謙譲語Ⅱ) describes the same act but raises nobody. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 明日、三時に伺います。
申し上げる
to say to someone one respects
申し上げる is the humble form of 言う. It describes one's own action and raises **the person it is directed at** — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. Its twin 申す (謙譲語Ⅱ) describes the same act but raises nobody. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- お礼を申し上げます。
拝見する
to look at — said of oneself, humbly
拝見する is the humble form of 見る. It describes one's own action and raises **the person it is directed at** — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 資料を拝見します。
いただく
to receive, eat or drink — said of oneself
いただく is the humble form of もらう・食べる・飲む. This entry asks about the もらう sense, the one in the example sentence. It lowers your own receiving and by doing so raises the giver — which is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. In eating and drinking there is no giver and so nobody to raise: the same form then belongs to 謙譲語Ⅱ, like まいる and 申す.
Examples
- 部長に資料をいただきます。
お目にかかる
to meet someone of higher standing
お目にかかる is the humble form of 会う. It describes one's own action and raises **the person it is directed at** — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 来週お目にかかります。
承る
to take an order from a customer, or accept a task entrusted to you
承る is the humble form of 聞く・引き受ける. It describes one's own action and raises **the person it is directed at** — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅰ. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- ご注文を承ります。
まいる
to go or come — said modestly of oneself
まいる is the humble (丁重語) form of 行く・来る. It describes one's own action modestly **towards the listener**, but raises nobody the act is directed at — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅱ・丁重語. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- ただいままいります。
申す
to say, or to be called — said modestly of oneself
申す is the humble (丁重語) form of 言う. It describes one's own action modestly **towards the listener**, but raises nobody the act is directed at — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅱ・丁重語. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 田中と申します。
いたす
to do — said modestly of oneself
いたす is the humble (丁重語) form of する. It describes one's own action modestly **towards the listener**, but raises nobody the act is directed at — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅱ・丁重語. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 準備はこちらでいたします。
おる
to be — said modestly of oneself
おる is the humble (丁重語) form of いる. It describes one's own action modestly **towards the listener**, but raises nobody the act is directed at — that is what makes it 謙譲語Ⅱ・丁重語. The form follows from no rule — it has to be memorised.
Examples
- 明日は一日社におります。
存じる
to know or think — said modestly
存じる is the humble (丁重語) form of 知る・思う. It describes one's own knowing modestly **towards the listener**, raising nobody — 謙譲語Ⅱ・丁重語. When what is known is a person one respects, the form changes: 先生を存じ上げております. 存じ上げる raises that person and belongs to 謙譲語Ⅰ.
Examples
- ありがたく存じます。
Where this comes from
Everything above comes from the free part of the Keigo app and has passed its content review.
- Keigo: Polite JapaneseFormal Japanese for work
App Store →Free app with an in-app purchase
Learning Japanese
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