でございます

でございます is a very polite です. It goes where です goes, after a noun or a な-adjective, and you hear it from shop and hotel staff, in announcements and in formal speeches.

でございます or でいらっしゃいます

でございます makes your own speech more polite; it does not raise the person you are talking about. Use it about yourself, your side, or things. For the customer, or anyone you are showing respect to, the honorific is でいらっしゃいます.

• × 田中様でございますか → 田中様でいらっしゃいますか

Usage notes

These go beyond the plain affirmative.

Negative and past

The negative is ではございません and the past でございました.

い-adjectives

An い-adjective cannot take でございます. Very formal speech changes its ending and adds ございます, as in おおきゅう大きゅうございます; everyday polite speech says おおきいです大きいです.

• × 大きいでございます → 大きいです

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Between colleagues or friends でございます sounds stiff or comic. Plain です is the everyday polite form.