参る（まいる）is the humble verb for going and coming — the kenjougo counterpart of both 行く and 来る. You use it to lower your own motion in front of someone you defer to: すぐに参ります ("I'll come right away"). But 参る has a second life that surprises learners: it turns up in station and shop announcements about trains, buses, and the weather — まもなく電車が参ります — where nobody is being honored at all. The key to both uses is that 参る is 丁重語（ていちょうご）: it humbles your speech toward the listener, not your motion toward a destination. This page unpacks that nuance and shows why it is the deciding difference between 参る and 伺う.
Conjugation
参る is an ordinary 五段 (godan) verb of the ラ行, so it inflects predictably — with one spelling point: the te-form is 参って (maitte), not ×参りて.
| Form | 参る | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| dictionary | 参る | mairu |
| polite (ます) | 参ります | mairimasu |
| past polite | 参りました | mairimashita |
| negative polite | 参りません | mairimasen |
| te-form | 参って | maitte |
In practice you meet 参る almost always in its polite 参ります form — humble verbs live in polite registers, so the bare 参る is rare outside fixed expressions and writing.
では、私が参ります。
dewa, watashi ga mairimasu
All right, I'll go (in your place).
ただ今、参ります。少々お待ちください。
tadaima, mairimasu. shōshō o-machi kudasai
I'm coming right now. Please wait a moment.
The 丁重語 nuance: it lowers your speech, not your destination
Here is the idea that makes everything about 参る click. Some humble verbs (伺う, 申し上げる, 拝見する) point at a specific honored person — you visit them, tell them, look at their thing. 参る does not. As 丁重語, it lowers the tone of your own utterance toward the listener you are speaking to, with no particular target being elevated. That is why its natural subject is you or your in-group, humbling your own motion politely for the benefit of the person you are addressing.
母もじきに参りますので、こちらでお待ちいただけますか。
haha mo jiki ni mairimasu node, kochira de o-machi itadakemasu ka
My mother will be along shortly too, so could you wait here?
Notice 母 (my mother): humbling an in-group member toward an outside listener is textbook 丁重語. You are not lowering your mother relative to any honored person in the room — you are dignifying your own speech to the person you are talking to.
Why a train can 参る
Because 丁重語 aims at the listener rather than at a target inside the sentence, 参る extends to a use that 伺う could never take: announcements. When a station says 電車が参ります, the train has no social status, and none is implied — 参る is functioning almost purely as a formality marker toward the waiting passengers, courteously dressing up the whole message. The subject need not be your in-group at all here; the verb simply signals a refined register to the audience.
まもなく二番線に電車が参ります。危ないですから、黄色い線までお下がりください。
mamonaku niban-sen ni densha ga mairimasu. abunai desu kara, kiiroi sen made o-sagari kudasai
A train will shortly arrive on platform 2. It's dangerous, so please stand back behind the yellow line.
参る vs 伺う: the split you must not blur
Both 参る and 伺う humble "go/come," and learners often treat them as free variants. They are not. 伺う is 謙譲語I: it requires an honored place or person you are visiting — 先生のお宅, 御社, a client. 参る is 丁重語: self-lowering toward the listener, with the destination's status irrelevant. So "I'll go to the store" is 店に参ります, never ×店に伺います, because a store merits no elevation.
| Destination | Merits elevation? | Correct verb |
|---|---|---|
| 先生のお宅 (teacher's home) | yes | 伺う (or 参る, blunter) |
| 御社 (your company) | yes | 伺う |
| 店・スーパー (a shop) | no | 参る |
| a station platform (a train arrives) | no | 参る |
明日、先生のお宅に伺います。
ashita, sensei no o-taku ni ukagaimasu
I'll visit the teacher's home tomorrow.
帰りに本屋に参りますが、何か要りますか。
kaeri ni honya ni mairimasu ga, nani ka irimasu ka
I'll stop by the bookstore on the way back — do you need anything?
Using 参る where 伺う would be finer (店に参ります is always fine; 先生のお宅に参ります is grammatical but a shade blunt) is at worst a little flat, not an outright error. The reverse — 伺う with no one to visit — is a real mistake.
〜てまいる: the humble continuation
参る also works as the humble form of the auxiliaries 〜ていく／〜てくる, giving 〜てまいる. It handles both the spatial "go/come doing" and the temporal "come to be over time," and it is common in formal speech and writing.
資料をお持ちして参りました。
shiryō o o-mochi shite mairimashita
I've brought the materials with me (humble).
十一月に入り、だんだん寒くなってまいりました。
jūichi-gatsu ni hairi, dandan samuku natte mairimashita
Now that November's here, it's gradually gotten colder. (formal)
Register: formal, and literary in set phrases
Modern 参る is a formal verb — business, service, and polite writing. It also survives in literary and set expressions where it means simply "arrive / come" with a poetic tone, detached from any humbling. 春が参りました ("spring has come") and 出番が参りました ("my turn has come") belong to this register; you will hear them in narration, on stage, and in written prose rather than in ordinary talk.
長い冬が終わり、ようやく春が参りました。
nagai fuyu ga owari, yōyaku haru ga mairimashita
The long winter is over, and spring has finally come. (literary)
いよいよ、私の出番が参りました。
iyoiyo, watashi no deban ga mairimashita
At last, my turn has come. (literary / dramatic)
Common mistakes
Mistake 1 — Using 参る for a superior's motion. 参る lowers its subject, so the honored person is demoted. Raise them with いらっしゃる instead.
❌ 社長は三時にこちらへ参ります。
Wrong axis — 参る humbles its subject, but the president must be elevated: いらっしゃる.
✅ 社長は三時にこちらへいらっしゃいます。
shachō wa sanji ni kochira e irasshaimasu
The president will come here at three.
Mistake 2 — Assuming 参る needs an honored destination. It doesn't — that's 伺う. A statusless place is exactly where 参る belongs.
❌ 近所のスーパーに伺います。
Wrong — a supermarket merits no elevation, so 謙譲語I 伺う doesn't fit; use 丁重語 参る.
✅ 近所のスーパーに参ります。
kinjo no sūpā ni mairimasu
I'll go to the neighborhood supermarket.
Mistake 3 — Conjugating the te-form as ×参りて. As a 五段 ラ行 verb, 参る takes the っ euphonic te-form.
❌ 資料を持って参りて、ご説明します。
Wrong te-form — a 五段 ラ行 verb gives 参って, not ×参りて.
✅ 資料を持って参って、ご説明します。
shiryō o motte maitte, go-setsumei shimasu
I'll bring the materials over and explain.
Mistake 4 — Elevating your own coming with いらっしゃる. The mirror error: sonkeigo about yourself.
❌ 私が三時にそちらへいらっしゃいます。
Self-elevation — いらっしゃる raises the subject, which here is you. Humble down with 参る (or 伺う if visiting an honored place).
✅ 私が三時にそちらへ参ります。
watashi ga sanji ni sochira e mairimasu
I'll come over to your place at three.
Key takeaways
- 参る is the humble go/come for 行く and 来る, met almost always as 参ります.
- It is 丁重語: it lowers your speech toward the listener, not your motion toward a destination — so its subject is you or your in-group, and a statusless train can 参る in an announcement.
- 参る vs 伺う: 伺う (謙譲語I) needs an honored place or person to visit; 参る (丁重語) does not — 店に参ります, never ×店に伺います.
- 〜てまいる is the humble form of 〜ていく／〜てくる (寒くなってまいりました), common in formal speech and writing.
- Never use 参る for a superior's motion (→ いらっしゃる), and mind the te-form 参って (not ×参りて).
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- Special Kenjougo VerbsN3 — The suppletive humble verbs — 参る・伺う, 申す・申し上げる, いたす, 拝見する, いただく, おる, 存じる and the rest — that override お〜する for Japanese's highest-frequency verbs, sorted by the 謙譲語I / 丁重語 split that tells you whether each one needs an honored target.
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