This is the page you keep open in a browser tab while you write a formal email. Keigo has productive machinery — お〜になる builds an honorific, お〜する builds a humble — but the twenty verbs you use most often ignore that machinery and use special, unpredictable words instead. Here they are in three columns: plain, 尊敬語 (そんけいご) for raising someone else's action, and 謙譲語 (けんじょうご) for lowering your own. The single most useful habit this table builds is a reflex: check here first, because for exactly these high-frequency verbs, an invented お〜 form is wrong.
How to read the columns
Three registers, one meaning per row:
- Plain — the dictionary verb, for friends and family.
- 尊敬語 — raises the subject; use it for what a customer, a teacher, or a superior does.
- 謙譲語 — lowers the subject (you or your in-group); use it for your own actions toward someone you honor.
The neutral-polite です／ます layer sits on top of all three (行きます, なさいます, 参ります) and is not a fourth column — it is orthogonal politeness toward the listener, treated separately on the 丁寧語 overview.
The model row: する
Anchor everything to する, because its two forms are pure suppletion and appear constantly:
- 尊敬語 なさる — "何になさいますか" (what will you have?) elevates the customer's choosing.
- 謙譲語 いたす — "私がいたします" lowers your own doing.
お飲み物は何になさいますか。
o-nomimono wa nani ni nasaimasu ka
What would you like to drink?
ご案内は私がいたします。
go-annai wa watashi ga itashimasu
I'll show you the way.
Notice you cannot get なさる or いたす from する by any rule — they are separate words. That is the pattern for the whole top of the table.
The table
Bold cells are suppletive (memorize as vocabulary). Un-bolded cells are the productive お〜になる／お〜する fallback. A dash means the form is not normally used.
| Plain | 尊敬語 (raises the subject) | 謙譲語 (lowers yourself) |
|---|---|---|
| する (do) | なさる | いたす |
| 行く (go) | いらっしゃる／おいでになる | 参る／伺う |
| 来る (come) | いらっしゃる／お見えになる | 参る／伺う |
| いる (be present) | いらっしゃる | おる |
| 言う (say) | おっしゃる | 申す／申し上げる |
| 見る (see) | ご覧になる | 拝見する |
| 食べる (eat) | 召し上がる | いただく |
| 飲む (drink) | 召し上がる | いただく |
| 知っている (know) | ご存じだ | 存じ上げる／存じる |
| もらう (receive) | お受け取りになる | いただく／頂戴する |
| くれる (give to me) | くださる | — |
| あげる (give) | — | 差し上げる |
| 会う (meet) | お会いになる | お目にかかる |
| 聞く／尋ねる (ask) | お尋ねになる | 伺う／お聞きする |
| 思う (think) | お思いになる | 存じる |
| 待つ (wait) | お待ちになる | お待ちする |
| 読む (read) | お読みになる | 拝読する |
| 書く (write) | お書きになる | お書きする |
| 帰る (go home) | お帰りになる | お暇する |
| 寝る／休む (rest) | お休みになる | — |
Readings, first time through: なさる (nasaru), いたす (itasu), いらっしゃる (irassharu), 参る（まいる, mairu), 伺う（うかがう, ukagau), おる (oru), おっしゃる (ossharu), 申す（もうす, mōsu), 申し上げる（もうしあげる, mōshiageru), ご覧になる（ごらんになる, go-ran ni naru), 拝見する（はいけんする, haiken suru), 召し上がる（めしあがる, meshiagaru), いただく (itadaku), ご存じ（ごぞんじ, go-zonji), 存じ上げる（ぞんじあげる, zonjiageru), 頂戴する（ちょうだいする, chōdai suru), くださる (kudasaru), 差し上げる（さしあげる, sashiageru), お目にかかる（おめにかかる, o-me ni kakaru), 拝読する（はいどくする, haidoku suru), お暇する（おいとまする, o-itoma suru), お休みになる（おやすみになる, o-yasumi ni naru).
Examples across the frequent rows
先生はもう会場にいらっしゃいましたか。
sensei wa mō kaijō ni irasshaimashita ka
Has the teacher already arrived at the venue?
よろしければ、こちらの資料をご覧ください。
yoroshikereba, kochira no shiryō o go-ran kudasai
If you'd like, please take a look at these materials.
冷めないうちに、どうぞ召し上がってください。
samenai uchi ni, dōzo meshiagatte kudasai
Please eat it before it gets cold.
先生が推薦状を書いてくださいました。
sensei ga suisenjō o kaite kudasaimashita
The teacher wrote me a letter of recommendation.
このお菓子、京都のお土産にいただいたんです。
kono o-kashi, kyōto no o-miyage ni itadaita n desu
I received these sweets as a souvenir from Kyoto.
またお目にかかれるのを楽しみにしております。
mata o-me ni kakareru no o tanoshimi ni shite orimasu
I look forward to meeting you again.
一つ伺ってもよろしいですか。
hitotsu ukagatte mo yoroshii desu ka
May I ask you something?
ロビーでお待ちしております。
robī de o-machi shite orimasu
I'll be waiting in the lobby.
The trap this table exists to prevent
Once you learn お〜になる and お〜する, they feel like a universal solvent — apply them to any verb and out comes keigo. For the ordinary tail of verbs (待つ → お待ちになる, 読む → お読みになる) that is exactly right. But for the bolded rows above, the suppletive form owns the slot and the productive pattern is simply wrong: 見る already has ご覧になる, so ×お見になる is an error; 食べる already has 召し上がる, so ×お食べになる is an error; 言う already has おっしゃる, so ×お言いになる is an error.
English gives no warning here, because English politeness is gradient — "have a seat" is politer than "sit down," but you build it from the same verb. Japanese, for its most common verbs, makes you switch words entirely, and there is no rule telling you which verbs those are. The list above is that missing rule. See the suppletive honorific verbs page for why these particular verbs went irregular.
Common mistakes
1. Running お〜になる over a suppletive (the anchor error). 見る has ご覧になる; the productive form is doubly wrong.
❌ 社長は資料をお見になりましたか。
Wrong — 見る has the special honorific ご覧になる; お見になる isn't Japanese.
✅ 社長は資料をご覧になりましたか。
shachō wa shiryō o go-ran ni narimashita ka
Has the president looked at the materials?
2. お食べになる for 食べる. The honorific of 食べる is 召し上がる, not the productive form.
❌ お客様、ケーキをお食べになりますか。
Wrong — use the suppletive 召し上がる.
✅ お客様、ケーキを召し上がりますか。
o-kyakusama, kēki o meshiagarimasu ka
Would you like some cake, ma'am?
3. Humbling the superior's action. お〜する lowers the subject; using it for the teacher's action accidentally humbles the teacher.
❌ 先生が資料をお送りしました。
Wrong — お送りする humbles the subject, but the teacher should be raised: 送ってくださいました.
✅ 先生が資料を送ってくださいました。
sensei ga shiryō o okutte kudasaimashita
The teacher sent me the materials.
4. お知りになる for the honorific of 知る. 知る's honorific is the suppletive ご存じ (a な-adjective-like form), not お知りになる.
❌ 部長はこの件をお知りになっていますか。
Wrong — the honorific of 知る is ご存じだ.
✅ 部長はこの件をご存じですか。
buchō wa kono ken o go-zonji desu ka
Is the department head aware of this matter?
Key takeaways
- The highest-frequency verbs are suppletive — their honorific and humble forms are separate words you memorize, not built from a rule.
- 尊敬語 raises the subject; 謙譲語 lowers yourself. Pick the column by asking whose action it is.
- Check this table before reaching for お〜になる／お〜する — for the bolded rows the productive form is wrong (×お見になる, ×お食べになる, ×お言いになる).
- Empty cells are principled: くれる has no humble, あげる no honorific, because the register would aim respect at the wrong person.
- The ます layer is separate — it stacks on any of the three (なさいます, いたします, 参ります).
Now practice Japanese
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- 尊敬語⇄謙譲語⇄Plain: Master Pair TableN3 — The keystone desk-reference pairing each everyday verb with its 尊敬語 (raise the other person) and 謙譲語 (lower yourself), across plain, honorific, humble, and です／ます — and the rule that direction of respect, not politeness level, picks the column.
- Suppletive 尊敬語 Verbs: TableN3 — The special respectful verbs that replace the plain verb wholesale — いらっしゃる, 召し上がる, ご覧になる, おっしゃる, なさる, くださる, ご存じだ — with their plain bases, their irregular 〜います polite forms, and why you must never re-honorify them with お〜になる.
- Suppletive 謙譲語 Verbs: TableN3 — The special humble verbs for your own actions — 伺う／参る, いただく, 拝見する, 申す／申し上げる, いたす, おる, 存じる／存じ上げる, お目にかかる — with their plain bases and the 謙譲語 I vs 丁重語 split that decides 伺う vs 参る and 申し上げる vs 申す.
- One Verb, Three Axes: The Keigo MappingN3 — The master table every keigo learner memorizes — how the highest-frequency verbs realize across plain, 丁寧語, 尊敬語, and 謙譲語, and why they are suppletive rather than conjugated.
- Special Sonkeigo VerbsN3 — The suppletive honorific verbs — いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, なさる, 召し上がる and the rest — that replace the productive patterns for Japanese's highest-frequency verbs, plus the ラ行 〜います quirk that ties five of them together.
- 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.