In this guide
Keigo, written 敬語, is the name for the words and expressions used to show courtesy and respect in Japanese. I like to begin with its small, everyday uses. You might offer to carry a visitor's bag, or ask a teacher for help with something you can't read. Both are ordinary things to say, but your choice of words also helps you show respect to the person involved.
If you've learned です and ます, you've already met part of keigo. Beyond those familiar polite endings, there are special ways to describe someone else's actions respectfully, and ways to describe what you do for that person. Some of the expressions look quite similar, even when they describe different people doing the same action.
I find it helps to picture the situation before choosing the words. We'll keep track of who does the action and who we're showing respect to, then use that understanding to form sentences for an offer of help, a visit or a request. We'll start with what the polite endings you already know are doing.
Start with ordinary polite Japanese
Polite speech is a useful starting point when you meet somebody, speak to a teacher or serve a customer. With a close friend, the same formality can feel distant. Age is only part of the picture: a shop assistant may speak respectfully to a younger customer because they're serving that customer.
The familiar です and ます make your speech polite to the listener. This is called 丁寧語. You can talk about yourself or somebody else with the same polite endings.
私は学生です。
I'm a student.
私は本を読みます。
I read books.
私 means ‘I,’ 学生 means ‘student,’ and 本 means ‘book.’ In the first sentence, です follows the noun 学生. For an action, use the verb's polite form: 読みます means ‘read’ or ‘will read.’ It already has a complete polite ending.
We'll use a small part of that verb several times. Remove ます from 読みます and you have 読み. This is the ます-stem: the part left before ます.
Which sentences speak politely to the listener?
Choose every sentence with a polite ending. The sentence may describe you or somebody else.
Which endings can you recognize?
Describe the other person’s action respectfully
Suppose you're telling a classmate which book your teacher will read. You can show respect to the teacher by using a respectful form, called 尊敬語. Start with 読みます, then put its stem between お and になります:
読みます → 読み → お読みになります
Read → the stem → read respectfully
先生はこの本をお読みになります。
The teacher will read this book.
The teacher does the reading and receives the respect. Your classmate is listening, but the respectful verb describes the teacher. The final ます also keeps the sentence polite to the classmate. These two kinds of courtesy can work together.
You can use the familiar polite ending for a completed action too. Change なります to なりました:
先生はこの本をお読みになりました。
The teacher read this book.
Describe your teacher waiting
待ちます means “wait.” Its ます-stem is 待ち. You tell a classmate that your teacher will wait. Use お + stem + になります to show respect to the teacher.
先生は…
Some common actions have a special respectful word. For ‘be,’ ‘come’ and ‘go,’ learn いらっしゃいます. When asking whether your teacher is in the classroom, you can say:
先生は教室にいらっしゃいますか。
Is the teacher in the classroom?
Here, the question asks whether the teacher is there. If you're discussing an arranged visit, the same verb can mean ‘come’:
先生は明日いらっしゃいます。
The teacher is coming tomorrow.
You're with your teacher in Tokyo and ask about tomorrow's trip to Kyoto. Here, いらっしゃいます means ‘go’:
明日は京都にいらっしゃいますか。
Are you going to Kyoto tomorrow?
For looking at something, the useful respectful expression is ご覧になります. If the teacher will look at a photo, you can tell your classmate:
先生はこの写真をご覧になります。
The teacher will look at this photo.
The photo could be yours; the teacher is still the person doing the looking. I would learn いらっしゃいます and ご覧になります as whole expressions. They're useful words to have ready when a teacher or guest is the person you're talking about.
Offer to do something for them
Now you're helping a visitor with a bag. You're doing the carrying, and you want to treat the visitor respectfully. A humble expression lets you describe that help courteously. These expressions are called 謙譲語.
お荷物をお持ちします。
I'll carry your bag.
持ちます means ‘carry’ or ‘hold.’ Remove ます to get 持ち, then put it between お and します. You do the carrying; the visitor receives your help and the respect expressed through it. The offer makes ‘I’ clear, so you can leave it out.
持ちます → 持ち → お持ちします
Carry → the stem → carry for the other person humbly
It's worth looking at the ending when you hear one of these long expressions. お持ちになります describes the other person carrying. お持ちします is your offer to carry for them. You can choose the right sentence by deciding who will pick up the bag.
Another useful offer is ご案内します, ‘I'll show you the way’ or ‘I'll guide you.’ For example, you can offer to take a visitor to a meeting room:
会議室にご案内します。
I'll show you to the meeting room.
You do the guiding and the visitor receives it, just as with the bag. Learn ご案内します together as an expression; the ご belongs with this wording.
Show a visitor the way
You will show a visitor to the lobby. Choose the humble offer that says you do the guiding.
ロビーに…
Visit a teacher or look at their work
Humble verbs are useful when you visit someone or look at their work, too. For a visit to your teacher's office, learn 伺います:
明日、先生の研究室に伺います。
I'll visit my teacher's office tomorrow.
You make the visit. The office is associated with the teacher, and 伺います shows respect to that teacher. You can also use 伺います to ask someone a question:
先生に伺います。
I'll ask the teacher.
The surrounding conversation tells you whether you're visiting or asking. In both examples, it's easy to identify the teacher who receives the respect.
For looking at the teacher's work, use 拝見します. If they've sent you an article, you can report that you've read it like this:
先生の記事を拝見しました。
I read your article. / I read the teacher's article.
しました is the past form of します, so 拝見しました describes a completed action. You did the looking; the wording shows respect to the teacher whose article it is.
For your own ordinary reading, such as reading a book on the train, 読みます is a polite choice. Being the person doing an action doesn't mean you need a special humble verb every time.
Reply about a teacher’s photo
Your teacher sent you a photo they took. You looked at it and want to report your action humbly, showing respect to the teacher. Which ending fits?
先生の写真を…
Introduce yourself in a formal setting
A formal introduction gives you another useful expression to keep ready. At the start of a business meeting, someone named Tanaka could say:
田中と申します。
My name is Tanaka.
申します is a formal way to give your name. と connects the name to the verb, a little like ‘I'm called Tanaka.’ You're speaking courteously to the listener about yourself. The phrase doesn't need somebody receiving a service from you.
In a friendly first meeting, 田中です is polite too. I'd use the longer introduction when the occasion is formal, and keep the simple name + です for an ordinary introduction. To introduce yourself, put your own name before と申します.
Ask the other person to do something
Suppose you need a visitor to wait while you check something. This time, they will do the action. You can ask politely by presenting their waiting as help you would receive:
少しお待ちいただけませんか。
Could you wait a moment, please?
少し means ‘a little’ or ‘a short while.’ The request starts with the familiar stem of 待ちます, ‘wait.’ Add お before the stem and いただけませんか after it:
待ちます → 待ち → お待ちいただけませんか
Wait → the stem → could you wait, please?
Here, いただけませんか asks whether you could receive the visitor's help. You are the receiver, and the visitor does the waiting. The humble wording describes receiving that help; it doesn't make you the person who waits.
You can also end the request with いただけますか. お待ちいただけますか and お待ちいただけませんか both ask the person to wait. Either ending works for the requests here.
Let's use the pattern for a different action. You've already met 読みます, ‘read.’ 名前 means ‘name.’ If you can't read a name on a card, you can ask your teacher to read it for you. Keep the teacher as the reader and build the request from 読み.
Ask your teacher to read a name
Complete the request using お + the stem of 読みます + いただけますか or いただけませんか. Enter only the missing request phrase, in kanji or hiragana. The full stop is already supplied.
この名前を＿。
For an explanation, learn ご説明 as the starting piece. 説明します means ‘explain.’ Remove the whole します, then add ご and the request ending:
説明します → ご説明 → ご説明いただけますか
Explain → the courteous wording → could you explain?
もう一度ご説明いただけますか。
Could you explain it one more time?
もう一度 means ‘one more time.’ The person you're asking does the explaining, and you would receive their help. ご説明いただけませんか is another way to make the request.
Ask for an explanation
You want the other person to explain something one more time. Choose all the taught requests that ask them to explain.
もう一度…
These patterns let you reuse a learned verb with a new object, place or person. When you want to add a new verb, check its full courteous expression in a reliable lesson or dictionary. Japanese has established choices such as ご覧 for looking; adding お to every ordinary stem won't always produce the form you need. The same care applies to choosing お or ご.
I like the short request to wait because it gives you time to deal with an ordinary small problem. Still, think about what you're asking. If you need more than a moment, tell the person what's happening and give them a choice. A courteous ending helps you ask; the amount of help you request matters too.
Try one in your next conversation
Choose something you're likely to say soon: a polite introduction, an offer to guide a visitor, or a request for help reading something. Say who will do the action before you build the sentence. For a respectful description, that person receives the respect. For a humble offer, you act for the other person. In a request with いただけますか, you ask to receive the other person's help.
You can come back to the worked examples while you're writing. Change the name, destination or thing being read, and check that the verb still describes the right person's action. These article quizzes don't save Study progress.
About the author
B. Rungswell
B. Rungswell is the editor of the Bunpo Check blog and a native English speaker who has passed JLPT N1. Drawing on many years of life in Japan and experience working at Japanese companies, Rungswell writes practical guides to Japanese grammar for English-speaking learners.