Japanese/Grammar/Honorifics

In Japanese society people are "ranked" based on their age, job or grade level, and other criteria. The Japanese language reflects this: there is a sophisticated grammatical system in place as well as a specialized vocabulary able to express ample nuances of politeness. This is called the honorifics system.

Verbs (動詞 - Doushi)
Japanese has three different ways to express formality in verbs: the plain form (くだけた, kudaketa, "chatty" or "impolite"), the simple polite form (ていねい, teinei, "polite") and the advanced polite form (敬語, keigo, "honorific language"). Kudaketa verbs build off the dictionary form of a verb. Teinei verbs build off the stem of a verb + ma + the tense endings. Keigo is usually formed by archaic or highly irregular verbs that can be divided into two further groups: 尊敬語, sonkeigo, or honorific, and 謙譲語, kenjougo, or humble language. Sonkeigo" is an honorific way of speaking in which you elevate the rank of the person you're speaking to or about way above your own. Kenjougo is a humble way of speaking in which you humble yourself or lower your rank below the person you're speaking to.

Below is a chart comparing kudaketa verbs to teinei verbs.

* These forms are not used commonly. Usually, the plain forms of the conjunctive and conditional tenses would be used.

On the conjunctive, also known as the "-te form:" This is used as a variety of tenses but mainly when several verbs come in succession of each other (私はピザを食べて、眠りました. - Watashi wa piza wo tabete, nemurimashita. - I ate pizza, then slept.)

Regular Keigo Verb Forms

Irregular Keigo Verb Forms

The おいでになります oideninarimasu comes from the regular forms above applied to the old verb いづ izu (= modern 出る deru).

Honorifics (敬語 - Keigo)
A variety of ways can be employed to make words polite or impolite. One way that can be used is simply choosing a certain word (i.e., instead of using あなた (anata) to refer to the second person, one can use their name) or employ the usage of special affixes. Notably one of the most common is -さん (-san), used to denote something like Mr./Mrs./Ms. onto a name. A list of affixes is below.

* -こうはい (kohai) is rarely used as an affix. Most people in a senpai position would use -くん (kun) instead.

Note that -くん (kun) is a somehow (not strictly, just more often) preferred affix speaking to or between boys (although boyfriends are sometimes addressed with -ちゃん). Girls tend to use -ちゃん (chan) in a similar manner, although -くん (kun) is also used sometimes. Unlike -さん (san) which is commonly used with a family name, these two affixes can also be used with given names (moreover, the name used may be shortened in front of these two affixes).

-さま (sama) is also commonly used when addressing customers