This is the formation reference for the lightest 尊敬語（そんけいご）— the honorific that is shaped identically to the passive. The anchor is 行く → 行かれる（いかれる, "goes," honorific). A 五段 verb walks its final kana to the あ-row and adds れる; a 一段 verb adds られる; する becomes される; 来る becomes 来られる. There is nothing new to memorise in the shape — you already know it from the passive. The whole difficulty of this page is the flip side: because the form is borrowed, 話される is at once a passive, a potential, and an honorific, and only the sentence around it tells you which. The social register — why professionals lean on it — is on the 〜られる teaching page.
The core shape: あ-row + れる vs + られる
A 五段 verb builds it on the あ-row（the same 未然形 base as the negative 行かない）, then adds れる. A 一段 verb just adds られる to its fixed stem.
| Class | Dictionary | Honorific | Reading | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 五段 -く | 行く (go) | 行かれる | ikareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -む | 飲む (drink) | 飲まれる | nomareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -る | 帰る (go home) | 帰られる | kaerareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -す | 話す (speak) | 話される | hanasareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -つ | 待つ (wait) | 待たれる | matareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -ぐ | 泳ぐ (swim) | 泳がれる | oyogareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -ぶ | 選ぶ (choose) | 選ばれる | erabareru | あ-row + れる |
| 五段 -う | 使う (use) | 使われる | tsukawareru | あ-row + れる（う→わ） |
| 一段 | 出る (leave) | 出られる | derareru | stem + られる |
| 一段 | 始める (start) | 始められる | hajimerareru | stem + られる |
| する (irregular) | する | される | sareru | suppletive |
| 来る (irregular) | 来る | 来られる | korareru | こ + られる |
Just as in the passive, the -う verbs insert わ（使う → 使われる, never ×使あれる）, because the あ-row of the う-column is わ. This is the identical machinery detailed on the passive formation table.
部長はこの記事をもう読まれましたか。
buchō wa kono kiji o mō yomaremashita ka
Have you already read this article, sir?
先生は来週、学会で発表されます。
sensei wa raishū, gakkai de happyō saremasu
The professor will present at the conference next week. (する → される)
The relief: the ます-form is perfectly regular
Here is the practical payoff and the reason offices default to this form. Unlike the special ラ行 honorifics — いらっしゃいます, なさいます, おっしゃいます, くださいます, all of which drop an り — the 〜られる honorific conjugates with no irregularity at all. 帰られる → 帰られます, 行かれる → 行かれます, される → されます. You attach it the same way to every verb and inflect it the same way. Nothing to trip over.
| Form | 帰る → 帰られる | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| present (polite) | 帰られます | kaeraremasu |
| past | 帰られました | kaeraremashita |
| negative | 帰られません | kaeraremasen |
| te-form | 帰られて | kaerarete |
社長はもう帰られましたか。
shachō wa mō kaeraremashita ka
Has the president already gone home?
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)
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 deference — which is why it thrives
Ranked by weight, the three honorific routes go: the special verbs（いらっしゃる, おっしゃる…）and お〜になる carry full deference, while 〜られる carries the least. That is not a weakness — it is the reason it dominates real spoken business Japanese. Toward a 課長 or 部長 you address dozens of times a day, wrapping every verb in お〜になる would sound stiff, even obsequious; 〜られる signals collegial respect, polished but not on-your-knees. It is also the default honorific of news and formal prose, because it is a single short suffix that flows where the two-part お〜になる frame 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)
社長、週末はゴルフをよくされるんですか。
shachō, shūmatsu wa gorufu o yoku sareru n desu ka
Do you play a lot of golf on weekends, sir? (する → される, light workplace respect)
Three jobs, one shape
This is the whole difficulty, and the reason the honorific reading needs a reference of its own. The string 飲まれる can be a passive, a potential, or an honorific. Nothing in the form decides it — the particles and the register do.
| Reading | Signal in the sentence |
|---|---|
| Honorific ("[a respected person] drinks") | a socially high subject marked が／は; no に-agent; polite register |
| Passive ("gets drunk / is drunk") | an agent marked with に; often adversative |
| Potential ("can drink") | a が-marked object; about ability, no agent |
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、昔から井戸の水が飲まれてきた。
kono chihō de wa, mukashi kara ido no mizu ga nomarete kita
In this region, well water has been drunk since ancient times. (an inanimate thing is drunk → passive)
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)
One structural mercy narrows the collision. For 五段 verbs the potential splits off into its own shape — 行く has potential 行ける（not 行かれる）, 飲む has 飲める — so a 五段 〜られる can only be passive or honorific, never potential. The full three-way pile-up（食べられる = passive = potential = honorific）is a 一段 problem. When speakers want to force "can" on a 一段 verb, they switch to ら抜き 見れる／食べれる, which is only potential — the language routing around its own ambiguity.
The double-keigo trap
Because 〜られる is already a full honorific, adding a second honorific layer on top is 二重敬語（にじゅうけいご） — one layer too many. The two classic over-corrections: stacking られる onto a verb that is already a special honorific（×おっしゃられる, since おっしゃる is honorific）, and combining お〜になる with られる on one verb（×お帰りになられる）. Pick one route.
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 — not ×おっしゃられました)
Common mistakes
Mistake 1 — Reading an honorific 〜られる as a passive. With が on the honored subject and no に-agent, there is no passive victim.
❌ 部長が帰られました。
Read as passive — but が marks the honored 部長 and there is no に-agent, so this is honorific, not passive. It means 'the department head has gone home.'
✅ 部長が帰られました。
buchō ga kaeraremashita
The department head has gone home. (honorific)
Mistake 2 — Stacking られる on an already-honorific verb. Doubling 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 over-marks it.
✅ 社長はそうおっしゃいました。
shachō wa sō osshaimashita
The president said so.
Mistake 3 — Combining お〜になる with られる. Both are honorific; using them together on one verb is 二重敬語.
❌ 先生はもうお帰りになられましたか。
Double keigo — お帰りになる 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. 尊敬語 can never take a first-person subject; about your own action you switch to humble 謙譲語.
❌ 私が資料を説明されます。
Self-elevation — you can't honor your own action, and this reads as a passive anyway. Use the humble ご説明いたします.
✅ 私が資料をご説明いたします。
watashi ga shiryō o go-setsumei itashimasu
I'll explain the materials. (humble, for your own action)
Mistake 5 — Expecting a special ラ行 conjugation. 〜られる is regular; it does not drop り the way なさる and いらっしゃる do.
❌ 社長は明日、出発さいます。
Wrong — される conjugates regularly to されます, not ×さいます. The り-dropping is only for the ラ行 special verbs (なさいます, いらっしゃいます).
✅ 社長は明日、出発されます。
shachō wa ashita, shuppatsu saremasu
The president departs tomorrow.
Key takeaways
- 行かれる is the anchor. 五段 = final kana to the あ-row + れる; 一段 = stem + られる; する → される; 来る → 来られる — identical to the passive, and the -う verbs insert わ.
- The ます-form is perfectly regular（帰られます）— unlike the ラ行 special verbs that drop り.
- It carries the least deference of the three honorific routes, which is why it dominates office speech, news, and formal writing.
- Its shape is triple-ambiguous（passive / potential / honorific）; resolve it by the particle on the person（に = passive agent, が + polite = honorific）. 五段 potential splits off（行ける）, so 五段 collides only passive/honorific.
- Never stack it on an already-honorific verb or on お〜になる（二重敬語）, and never use it about yourself.
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- Passive 受身: Formation TableN4 — The one-shape reference for the passive: 五段 walk to the あ-row and add れる (書く→書かれる), 一段 add られる (食べられる), する→される, 来る→来られる — with the わ-insertion trap and the three-meanings-one-shape collision on 一段 verbs.
- お〜になる: Regular Honorific FormationN3 — The single-shape reference for the productive honorific: お + ます-stem + になる across every verb class — with the ご + Sino variant, the full になる paradigm, and the two situations that block the template.
- 二重敬語: Over-Marking Pitfalls TableN2 — A lookup of the double-honorific errors learners produce under pressure (×ご覧になられる, ×おっしゃられる) with their clean single-marker repairs — plus the short list of doubles that the 敬語の指針 has sanctioned by custom.