There are three ways to raise a subject in 尊敬語（そんけいご）: the special verbs (いらっしゃる, おっしゃる…), the productive お〜になる pattern, and the one on this page — the 〜れる／られる honorific. It is by far the easiest to build, because it is shaped exactly like the passive: 話す→話される, 帰る→帰られる, 来る→来られる, する→される. The catch — and the whole point of this page — is that this shape is doing three unrelated jobs at once. 話される can be a passive, a potential, or an honorific. Nothing in the form tells you which; only the particles and the situation do. Learn to read that overload and you have unlocked the honorific that dominates real spoken business Japanese.
How to build it
You already know the mechanics, because they are the passive mechanics — identical, no exceptions.
| Type | Plain verb | Honorific 〜られる | Polite (ます) |
|---|---|---|---|
| godan | 帰る (go home) | 帰られる | 帰られます |
| godan | 書く (write) | 書かれる | 書かれます |
| godan | 飲む (drink) | 飲まれる | 飲まれます |
| godan | 思う (think) | 思われる | 思われます |
| ichidan | 食べる (eat) | 食べられる | 食べられます |
| ichidan | 出る (leave) | 出られる | 出られます |
| irregular | 来る (come) | 来られる | 来られます |
| irregular | する (do) | される | されます |
Note one relief: unlike the special ラ行 verbs (いらっしゃいます, なさいます), the 〜られる honorific conjugates perfectly regularly — 帰られます, 書かれます, no surprises in the ます-form. That regularity, plus the fact that you attach it the same way to every verb, is a big part of why professionals reach for it.
部長はいつ帰られますか。
buchō wa itsu kaeraremasu ka
When will you (the department head) be heading home?
先生が書かれた本を、去年ずっと読んでいました。
sensei ga kakareta hon o, kyonen zutto yonde imashita
I spent all of last year reading a book the teacher wrote.
この件について、部長はどう思われますか。
kono ken ni tsuite, buchō wa dō omowaremasu ka
What are your thoughts on this matter, sir?
The lightest form of respect
Ranked by weight, the three routes go: the special verbs and お〜になる carry full deference, while 〜られる carries the least. That is not a defect — it is the reason it thrives. In a company you speak up to your 課長 (section chief) and 部長 (department head) dozens of times a day; wrapping every verb in お〜になる would sound stiff, even faintly obsequious, toward someone who is merely a rung or two above you. 〜られる signals collegial respect — polished, professional, but not on-your-knees — which is precisely the register a modern office wants.
社長はもう出発されました。
shachō wa mō shuppatsu saremashita
The president has already left. (する → される)
課長は毎朝、一番に来られます。
kachō wa maiasa, ichiban ni koraremasu
The section chief is the first one in every morning. (来る, honorific)
The three-way ambiguity — read this twice
Here is the sentence that trips up every learner: 社長がビールを飲まれる. Is the president able to drink beer (potential)? Is the beer drunk by the president (passive)? Or does the president drink beer, said respectfully (honorific)? The form 飲まれる cannot tell you. You resolve it from the frame:
社長は毎晩ビールを飲まれる。
shachō wa maiban bīru o nomareru
The president drinks beer every evening. (esteemed subject + を object → honorific)
この地方では、水は井戸から飲まれていた。
kono chihō de wa, mizu wa ido kara nomarete ita
In this region, water used to be drunk from wells. (an inanimate thing is drunk → passive)
The cues that carry the load are exactly two: the particle on the person and the register. When the human is the honored subject marked が／は (社長が, 先生は), there is no に-agent, and the sentence sits in a polite frame, it is honorific. When a person is marked with に as the doer of something to someone, it is passive. When the "object" is a が-marked thing with no agent at all, it is potential.
先生が私の作文を直された。
sensei ga watashi no sakubun o naosareta
The teacher corrected my essay. (が subject, polite → honorific)
知らない人に足を踏まれた。
shiranai hito ni ashi o fumareta
A stranger stepped on my foot. (に-agent, adverse → passive)
Because this overload is genuinely hard, it has its own dedicated map: see One 〜られる, Three Meanings for the full triangulation table, and note that the potential splits cleanly off for godan verbs and する (飲める, できる), which quietly removes one of the three collisions.
Why writing and broadcasting love it too
Beyond the office, 〜られる is the default honorific of news and formal prose, for a practical reason: it is short. お〜になる forces a two-part frame around the verb; 〜られる is a single suffix, so it flows in a headline or a written report where お〜になる would clog the line.
首相は明日、被災地を訪問されます。
shushō wa ashita, hisaichi o hōmon saremasu
The Prime Minister will visit the disaster area tomorrow. (news register)
このテーマについて長年研究してこられた田中先生に、お話を伺います。
kono tēma ni tsuite naganen kenkyū shite korareta Tanaka-sensei ni, ohanashi o ukagaimasu
We'll hear from Professor Tanaka, who has researched this theme for many years. (broadcast register)
The deference ladder in one verb
Because the three sonkeigo routes coexist, one plain verb can be dialed to three levels of respect. Take 帰る ("go home"):
| Route | 帰る → | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| plain polite | 帰ります | neutral — no elevation |
| 〜られる | 帰られます | light respect |
| お〜になる | お帰りになります | full respect |
Both middle and bottom rows are correct honorifics; they differ only in how much deference they project. This is why 〜られる is a social choice, not just a grammatical one — picking 帰られます over お帰りになります quietly says "I respect you, but we are close enough that I needn't grovel."
先輩、もう帰られるんですか。
senpai, mō kaerareru n desu ka
You're heading home already, senpai? (light respect to a senior colleague)
社長はもうお帰りになりました。
shachō wa mō okaeri ni narimashita
The president has already left for home. (full respect)
Common mistakes
Mistake 1 — reading an honorific 〜られる as a passive. English speakers see 部長が帰られました and hear "the manager was returned."
❌ 部長が帰られました。（「部長が帰らせられた／戻された」の意味に取る誤り）
Misreading — with が on the honored 部長 and no に-agent, this is not passive.
✅ 部長が帰られました。
buchō ga kaeraremashita
The department head has gone home. (honorific)
There is no passive victim here — が marks the honored subject, and the polite ました seals it as respect.
Mistake 2 — stacking 〜られる onto an already-honorific verb (二重敬語). Learners "double up" for extra politeness.
❌ 社長はそうおっしゃられました。
Double keigo — おっしゃる is already honorific, so adding られる is redundant.
✅ 社長はそうおっしゃいました。
shachō wa sō osshaimashita
The president said so. (おっしゃる alone is enough)
Prescriptively, おっしゃられる and お帰りになられる are 二重敬語 — one honorific layer too many. (You will hear おっしゃられる often, and some accept it colloquially, but keep it out of writing and careful speech.) Use one route, not two.
Mistake 3 — combining お〜になる with 〜られる on the same verb.
❌ 先生はもうお帰りになられましたか。
Double keigo — お〜になる and 〜られる are both honorific; pick one.
✅ 先生はもう帰られましたか。
sensei wa mō kaeraremashita ka
Has the teacher already left? (one honorific layer)
Mistake 4 — using 〜られる about yourself. Sonkeigo can never take a first-person subject.
❌ 私が資料を説明されます。
Self-elevation — you can't honor your own action; this reads as passive anyway.
✅ 私が資料をご説明いたします。
watashi ga shiryō o gosetsumei itashimasu
I'll explain the materials. (humble 謙譲語, for your own action)
The moment the actor is you, you switch axes to 謙譲語. Honoring your own action is one of the loudest keigo errors a learner can make.
Key takeaways
- The 〜られる honorific is built identically to the passive — godan -a + れる, ichidan + られる, 来る→来られる, する→される — and conjugates regularly (帰られます, no ラ行 irregularity).
- It carries the least deference of the three sonkeigo routes, which is why it dominates office speech, news, and formal writing — polite but not stiff.
- Its form is triple-ambiguous (passive / potential / honorific); resolve it by the particle on the person (に = passive agent, が + polite = honorific) and the register.
- Never stack it on an already-honorific verb (×おっしゃられる, ×お帰りになられる) — that is 二重敬語.
- Never use it about yourself — sonkeigo demands a second- or third-person subject.
Now practice Japanese
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- お〜になる: The Regular Honorific PatternN3 — The productive sonkeigo template お + ます-stem + になる — how to build a respectful verb for almost anything, when the ます-stem resists it, and why the special forms always take precedence.
- 尊敬語 Overview: Elevating the SubjectN3 — How respectful language raises the person who performs the action — a superior, customer, or out-group figure — through three routes: special honorific verbs, the お〜になる pattern, and the lighter 〜(ら)れる honorific.
- ら抜き vs Honorific られる ConfusionN2 — Casual Japanese drops the ら from ichidan potentials (食べれる for 食べられる), but that same られる is also the honorific and passive — so in keigo you must keep every ら, both to stay formal and to preserve the honorific reading — though context still has to disambiguate which sense is meant.
- The Passive 受身: FormationN4 — How to build the Japanese passive れる／られる across all verb classes, why the doer is marked に (not 'by'), and why れる／られる looks identical to the potential and the honorific.
- The Potential Form: Expressing 'Can'N4 — An introduction to the potential form 可能形 — the stative conjugation that turns a verb into 'can / is able to,' and why its object leans toward が.