13.2 尊敬語 — Respectful Forms

Special respectful verbs

The most important respectful forms are irregular special verbs — they completely replace the ordinary verb. You need to memorize these pairs.

Ordinary form	Respectful form	Meaning
いる (to be)	いらっしゃる	to be; to exist
いく (to go)	いらっしゃる	to go
くる (to come)	いらっしゃる	to come
いう (to say)	おっしゃる	to say
する (to do)	なさる	to do
たべる / のむ	めしあがる	to eat / drink
もらう (to receive)	おうけになる	to receive
しる (to know)	ごぞんじだ	to know
みる (to see/look)	ごらんになる	to see
くれる (to give)	くださる	to give

Regular respectful pattern: お/ご～になる

For other verbs, the regular pattern is: お + verb stem + になる

For Chinese-origin (する) verbs, use ご instead of お:

The passive form as respectful

Another common respectful pattern is using the passive form of ordinary verbs:

This is the simplest way to make a verb respectful without special vocabulary.

Examples in context