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← All Lessons 26–50

Minna no Nihongo - Lesson 49

尊敬語 — Sonkeigo

A step-by-step guide to Japanese respectful language: honorific verb forms, おVになります, special respectful verbs, respectful requests, お／ご prefixes, plain-form sonkeigo, sentence consistency, common mistakes, and practical business examples.

Core idea: Lesson 49 is about raising the person you are talking about. When the subject is a customer, client, teacher, senior person, manager, or another person you wish to respect, Japanese often changes the verb itself instead of merely adding です／ます.

0. Quick bridge from the previous lesson

Before learning sonkeigo, it is useful to remember two causative expressions from the previous lesson. These are not the main grammar of Lesson 49, but they connect naturally to formal workplace Japanese.

Causative: make / let someone do something

Person に + Causative Verb

The department manager makes/has Ms. Law go to Osaka on a business trip.

Vさせていただけませんか — “Would you allow me to…?”

Causative て-form + いただけませんか

Would you please allow me to park my car here?

1. What is 敬語（けいご）?

Keigo is the system of polite and socially respectful Japanese. It is especially important in workplaces, customer service, formal situations, and conversations involving people whose social position should be respected.

There are three major categories that beginners should recognize.

Japanese Reading Function
sonkeigo Raises and respects the person performing the action.
kenjōgo Lowers the speaker or the speaker's side when acting toward someone respected.
teineigo Makes the sentence politely worded with forms such as です／ます.
Lesson 49 focuses on 尊敬語. The most important question is: “Whose action am I describing?” If the action belongs to the respected person, sonkeigo may be appropriate.
Common people referred to with sonkeigo include customers, clients, teachers, professors, a company's president, managers, senior colleagues, guests, and other people whom the speaker wishes to honor.

2. Respectful verbs with ～れる／～られる

Verb + れる／られる → respectful action

One common way to make a verb respectful is to use the same conjugation pattern as the passive form.

Important: this form looks the same as the passive form, but its function here is different. In Lesson 49, it is being used to show respect toward the person doing the action. Context tells you whether ～れる／～られる is passive, potential in some verbs, or honorific.

Group 1 verbs

Change the final dictionary-form u-row sound to the corresponding a-row + れる. In the polite form, use ～れます.

Normal Respectful polite Respectful plain Meaning
write
hurry
read
return / go home
take

Group 2 verbs

Remove ます and add られます. Plain form: られる.

Normal Respectful polite Respectful plain

Group 3 verbs

Normal Respectful polite Respectful plain

Examples

The president has already gone home.

The department manager will go to Singapore on a business trip next week.

The client/customer has already read the document.

The professor will come to the laboratory/study room at around seven.

Where are you going?

How much summer vacation will you take?

When are you moving to Tokyo?

Have you stopped drinking alcohol?

A note on business Japanese: The ～れる／～られる honorific form is useful and grammatically correct, but in business Japanese a special respectful verb or おVになります often sounds more clearly honorific. For example, is respectful, while is an even more recognizable sonkeigo expression.

3. お + Verb stem + になります

お + Verb stem + になります

This is another major sonkeigo pattern. It is generally more explicitly respectful than simply using ～れる／～られる.

How to find the verb stem: take the ます-form and remove ます.


Normal Stem Sonkeigo

Will you be buying the new iPad?

Will you be using this computer?

Did Ms./Mr. Sato make this schedule?

Did you/the professor write this book?

The department head always decides the plan for the meeting.

When not to mechanically use おVになります

This pattern does not work naturally with every verb. In particular, avoid mechanically applying it to:

  • verbs whose ます-stem is only one mora, such as and
  • and many する-verbs when a standard special honorific form exists
  • , for which is normally preferred
Instead of trying to force every verb into おVになります, learn the common special sonkeigo verbs. They are extremely frequent in real Japanese.

4. Special 尊敬語 verbs

Several very common verbs have their own established respectful forms. These should be memorized as vocabulary.

Normal verb Special sonkeigo Plain form Meaning
be / go / come
eat / drink
say
do
see / look / watch
know
sleep / go to bed
give to me/us/my side
Special ～る verbs: いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, なさる, and くださる have special polite forms:

not forms such as *いらっしゃります.

Examples with special verbs

Do you have any children?

Where are you going for your trip?

About what time will you come?

Will you be eating here?

Do you drink alcohol?

What is your husband's name?

Does the president know that the year-end party was moved to next week?

Would you like to see our products?

Were you able to sleep well last night?

How long did you study Japanese?

The teacher gave me a book.

The person wearing a kimono is Professor Sakamoto.

Negative forms

Sonkeigo can of course be negative.

Positive Negative

Will Mr. Deschen come to the year-end party?

No, I don't think he will come.

5. Respectful requests: おVください

お + Verb stem + ください

This is a respectful way to ask someone to do something. It is often used with customers, guests, and people whose status you wish to respect.

Ordinary polite request

Please write your name and address here.

More respectful

Please write your name and address here.

Notice that respectful Japanese often changes more than the verb: , , and .

Making a request softer

Japanese offers several levels of politeness. The exact choice depends on relationship and situation, but this progression is useful:

Expression Approximate feeling
Polite: Please write it.
Respectful: Please write it.
Could I ask you to write it?
Would you possibly be able to write it?
Where this form comes from: おVいただけますか／いただけませんか is built from humble language on the speaker's side: literally, the speaker is asking whether they can “receive the favor” of the other person's action. That is why it sounds softer and less commanding.

Special request forms

Do not mechanically attach お～ください to every special sonkeigo verb. Learn the natural fixed request form.

Meaning Natural respectful request
Please come
Please eat / drink
Please look
Please say
A common learner mistake is to create combinations that are grammatically imaginable but unnatural or over-polite. For example, instead of trying to build a request from , simply use the established expression .

6. Respectful prefixes お～ and ご～

Respectful Japanese often adds お or ご before nouns, adjectives, and some adverbs.

A useful beginner guideline is: お is common with native Japanese words, while ご is common with Sino-Japanese words. However, this is only a guideline. Many expressions are lexicalized exceptions and must be learned as normal vocabulary.

Common お～ words

Common ご～ words

Do not automatically add お or ご to every noun. Some words naturally take them, some only take them in certain contexts, and some sound unnatural with them. Treat frequent expressions such as お名前, ご住所, ご家族, お酒, and ご覧 as vocabulary chunks.

7. Sonkeigo can appear inside a plain-form sentence

Using sonkeigo does not mean every sentence must end in です／ます. The verb can remain respectful toward the person being discussed while the sentence ending is casual because the listener is a close friend or family member.

What time is the department manager coming?

Professor Hirabayashi gave me chocolate.

The important distinction is: respect toward the subject and politeness toward the listener are related but not identical grammatical choices.

8. Keep the level of respect consistent

A sentence can sound strange if one part is highly respectful while nearby vocabulary remains unnecessarily casual. In formal customer-facing language, choose the whole sentence consistently.

Ordinary polite Japanese

Please write your name and address here.

More consistently respectful Japanese

Please write your name and address here.

This is especially important in reception desks, hotels, stores, hospitals, corporate email, and business meetings.

9. Conjugating sonkeigo inside longer sentences

Sonkeigo verbs are still verbs, so they can be conjugated into past, negative, て-form, noun-modifying form, and other structures.

Base Past Negative て-form

He/she developed a fever last night, and it still has not gone down this morning.

He/she was surprised after hearing that news.

When making a direct respectful request, do not simply turn おVになります into a command-like おVになってください as your default pattern. Lesson 49 gives you the dedicated request pattern おVください, and common special verbs have their own natural request forms.

10. Real-life sonkeigo conversations

At a company reception desk

A: Is Department Manager Tanaka here?

B: Yes. He is in the meeting room at the moment.

At a restaurant

Staff: Will you be eating here?

Customer: Yes, please.

Offering a document to a client

Please take a look at this document.

If anything is unclear, please let us know. Extra practical expression

11. Common mistakes

Mistake 1: thinking ～れる／～られる is automatically potential.
In Lesson 49, it is often an honorific form: = “The president has already gone home.”
Mistake 2: using sonkeigo for your own action.
Sonkeigo raises the person performing the action. Do not normally honor yourself with forms such as .
Mistake 3: stacking multiple honorific constructions unnecessarily.
If a verb already has a special honorific form such as , avoid adding another honorific construction without a clear reason. Excessive stacking is called .
Mistake 4: blindly adding お or ご.
The native-Japanese / Sino-Japanese rule is useful, but actual usage has many fixed exceptions. Learn common respectful words as complete expressions.
Mistake 5: changing only the verb while the rest of the customer-facing sentence stays very casual.
In formal situations, vocabulary such as helps maintain a consistent register.

12. Master comparison table

Normal Japanese Sonkeigo Meaning
go
come
be / exist (person)
eat
drink
say
do
see / look
know
sleep
give to me/us

13. Practice

A. Change to sonkeigo

B. Make the request more respectful

C. Choose the best special sonkeigo verb

Choose from:

  1. The manager says that the plan is good.
  2. The professor knows the answer.
  3. The customer looks at the catalog.
  4. The teacher gave me a dictionary.
  5. The president comes at 10:00.

14. Final memory guide

A basic respectful verb form with the same shape as the passive conjugation.

A clear and common sonkeigo pattern: .

Memorize high-frequency special verbs: .

Use this to make a respectful request: , .

Respect is often expressed across the entire phrase, not only through the verb. Learn common combinations as vocabulary.