Learn about Japanese formality levels
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Intro |
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| Michael: How many levels of formality does Japanese have? |
| Risa: And how do they work? |
| Michael: At JapanesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: |
| Jun Sasaki, a personal trainer, is visiting a company owned by one of his clients. He sees Yoshi Nakamura, an employee, and asks, |
| "Is President Nagaoka [here]?" |
| Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。(Nagaoka-shachō wa irasshaimasu ka.) |
| Dialogue |
| Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。(Nagaoka-shachō wa irasshaimasu ka.) |
| Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。(Hai, imasu.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。 |
| Michael: "Is President Nagaoka [here]?" |
| Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。 |
| Michael: "Yes, [she] is." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: You may have noticed in the dialogue that Jun Sasaki and Yoshi Nakamura use different verbs to say "is." This is the result of using two different levels of politeness. |
| Michael: Recall how Jun Sasaki asked, "Is President Nagaoka [here]?" |
| Risa as Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。(Nagaoka-shachō wa irasshaimasu ka.) |
| Michael: Here, he used the honorific form of the verb meaning "to be" or "to exist": |
| Risa: いらっしゃいます (irasshaimasu). |
| Michael: He did so because the president is his customer and he wants to show him respect. |
| Michael: Now recall how Yoshi Nakamura answered, "Yes, [she] is." |
| Risa as Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。(Hai, imasu.) |
| Michael: Yoshi Nakamura used a different verb to say "is": |
| Risa: います (imasu). |
| Michael: This is because Yoshi works for the company, so when speaking about someone else from the same company to someone from outside of the company, he will not use honorific verbs, even if the person is his boss. Instead, he can opt for the polite |
| Risa: います (imasu), |
| Michael: or, if he wants to be extra polite, he can use the humble form |
| Risa: おります (orimasu). |
| Michael: All these verbs mean the same thing, "to be" or "to exist," and it's up to the speaker to choose the one that best suits the situation. If this conversation took place in a more casual setting between two friends, they might have used an even more casual form of the same verb: |
| Risa: いる (iru). |
| Michael: As you can see, Japanese has several different levels of formality, so let's examine them one at a time. First, we have the so called |
| Risa: 尊敬語 (sonkei-go), |
| Michael: or "honorific language." |
| Risa: 尊敬 (sonkei) |
| Michael: means "respect," and speakers use sonkei-go when describing the actions of someone else who is older or higher in social status than themselves, so that the speaker can show their respect to that person. It may also be used toward someone whom the speaker doesn't know well. |
| Please note that sonkei-go can't be used to describe your own actions because it's not appropriate to show respect to yourself. This also applies to someone in your in-group, when talking about his/her actions to someone else outside of your in-group. |
| Risa: Yes, sonkei-go is always used to talk about someone else, and is often marked by the usage of a special verb, such as irasshaimasu instead of imasu, or 召し上がります (meshiagarimasu) instead of 食べます (tabemasu), which means "to eat." |
| Michael: There are also some special constructions you can use, such as |
| Risa: お書きになります (o-kaki ni narimasu) instead of 書きます (kakimasu), |
| Michael: meaning "to write," and of course there are also special words that can be used for making sentences more polite, such as using |
| Risa: 御社 (onsha) |
| Michael: instead of |
| Risa: 会社 (kaisha) |
| Michael: when talking about someone's company. Apart from sonkei-go, or "honorific speech," Japanese also has "humble speech," or |
| Risa: 謙譲語 (kenjō-go). |
| Michael: You should use "humble speech" when you speak directly to someone else who is older or higher in social status to show a polite attitude toward them. For example, a salesperson speaking to a customer, a businessman speaking to a client, a subordinate speaking to a boss, a junior speaking to a senior, and a student speaking to a teacher or professor may all use kenjō-go. |
| While "honorific speech" shows respect by speaking about someone else in a honorific way, "humble speech" shows respect by speaking about yourself in a humble way. |
| In other words, "honorific speech" involves the speaker elevating either the listener or someone from the listener's in-group, whereas "humble speech" involves the speaker lowering their own status. In a humble sentence, the subject of the sentence, or action taker, is the speaker or someone in the speaker's in-group. You will usually use "humble speech" for describing your own actions. Risa, could you give us an example of humble speech? |
| Risa: Sure. For example, you can use 参ります (mairimasu) instead of 来ます (kimasu), or you can use いたします (itashimasu) instead of します(shimasu). |
| Michael: Just like for sonkei-go, or "honorific speech," for kenjō-go, or "humble speech," there is also a different set of verbs, which in this case are for lowering your own status or the status of someone in your in-group. |
| Risa: Yes. You can use verbs such as mairimasu, orimasu, itashimasu, and itadakimasu instead of kimasu, imasu, shimasu, or tabemasu. |
| Michael: That's why itadakimasu is said before a meal. |
| Risa: Yes, it's the humble form for both tabemasu and nomimasu, so it means something like "I'll humbly receive [this meal]," and it is used to show respect to the person who prepared the dishes. |
| Michael: You can also lower your status by using special sentence patterns, such as |
| Risa: お書きします(o-kaki shimasu) instead of 書きます (kakimasu), |
| Michael: and, as with honorific speech, there are certain words you can use to be humble, such as |
| Risa: 弊社 (heisha) instead of 会社 (kaisha) when talking about your own company. |
| Michael: Now that we've looked at both sonkei-go, or "honorific speech" and kenjō-go, or "humble speech," let's now examine a third level of formality known as |
| Risa: teinei-go, |
| Michael: or "polite speech." This is the form of speech which you're probably most familiar with, because this is the politeness level that you usually learn when you first start learning Japanese. |
| Risa: 丁寧語 (teinei-go) simply involves using verbs in their masu form, such as tabemasu instead of taberu, or yomimasu instead of yomu. It also includes the polite copula desu which is used instead of the informal da. |
| Michael: You can use teinei-go in almost every situation, which is the reason why it is often taught first. You usually use it with strangers or people who you don't know very well. You can even use it when speaking to your friends, depending on the closeness of the relationship and also your own personality. |
| Risa: Yes. So far, we have sonkei-go to elevate someone else, kenjō-go to lower your own status, and teinei-go to simply speak in a polite way. |
| Michael: Lastly, if you speak to very close friends or someone from your own family, you may also use informal speech, such as |
| Risa: 飲む (nomu) instead of 飲みます(nomimasu) or 行く(iku) instead of 行きます(ikimasu). |
| Michael: This is the lowest level of formality and it's appropriate only with someone close to you, so be extra careful when choosing to use it. Now, although we have gone from very formal language down to informal speech, there is one more form of language which you will often hear: |
| Risa: It is called 美化語 (bika-go), or "beautiful language," and it is used to make speech more elegant. "Beautiful language" is usually made by adding the prefixes o- or go- to nouns. This can be seen in the usage of お花 (o-hana) instead of 花 (hana), meaning "flower," and ご案内 (go-annai) instead of 案内 (annai), meaning "information." |
| Michael: While there is no clear rule on when to add either o- or go-, the prefix o- is usually added to Japanese words while the prefix go- is mostly added to Sino-Japanese words. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we've gone over several different levels of formality in Japanese. We started with "honorific speech," or |
| Risa: sonkei-go, |
| Michael: which is used to elevate the listener or their in-group. Next, we had "humble speech," or |
| Risa: kenjō-go, |
| Michael: which is used to lower the status of the speaker or someone from the speaker's in-group. We then talked about "polite speech," or |
| Risa: teinei-go, |
| Michael: which is the form of Japanese that is often taught first and can be used in most situations when one wants to speak politely. And lastly, we talked about informal speech, which is used with friends and family, and then briefly about "beautiful language," or |
| Risa: bika-go, |
| Michael: which is used to make speech more polite and elegant. Let's now look at another example of each. To say "will come" in honorific speech, one would say |
| Risa: irasshaimasu. |
| Michael: In humble speech, "will come" would be |
| Risa: mairimasu. |
| Michael: In polite speech, which is still very polite but a bit less than honorific or humble language, "will come" is |
| Risa: kimasu. |
| Michael: And lastly, in formal speech, "will come" is simply |
| Risa: kuru. |
| Michael: As for bika-go, or beautiful language, one can say, for example, |
| Risa: o-hanashi instead of hanashi, or go-kazoku instead of kazoku. |
| Michael: In some cases, the o- and go- prefixes are so commonly used that they essentially become part of the original words. |
| Risa: An example of this would be the word お金 (o-kane), which means "money." |
| Michael: You will see that the original version, |
| Risa: kane, |
| Micheal: is hardly ever used without the prefix o-. One final point to note, however, is that |
| Risa: bika-go |
| Michael: is not used with all nouns. A good example is |
| Risa: gairai-go, |
| Michael: or "words which came from abroad," such as |
| Risa: ゲーム (gēmu) or パソコン (pasokon). |
| Michael: Remember to never apply |
| Risa: bika-go |
| Michael: to words like these, and remember that there are also other Japanese words where |
| Risa: bika-go |
| Michael: cannot be applied as well. The Japanese language is constantly evolving, however, so these limitations may change with time. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Now, let's look at how some roles may change within different conversations. If you are talking to your boss or a supervisor, you should use polite or honorific speech when talking about their actions. You can also use humble speech when referring to your own actions. |
| Risa: However, if you talk to a business partner about your boss or supervisor, your boss or supervisor are now considered part of your in-group, so you should use humble speech when referring to their actions as well. |
| Michael: Lastly, if you're talking to a customer, you should always use polite or honorific speech for their actions and humble speech for your own actions. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sample conversation: Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud, and then listen carefully as Risa models the correct answer. Repeat after her, with the focus on your pronunciation. Are you ready? |
| How do you say, "Is President Nagaoka [here]?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。 |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. Remember to focus on your pronunciation. |
| Risa as Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。 |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Jun Sasaki: 長岡社長はいらっしゃいますか。 |
| Michael: Let's move on to the second sentence. How do you say, "Yes, [she] is." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。 |
| Michael: Did you get it right this time? Listen again and repeat. |
| Risa as Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。 |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Risa as Yoshi Nakamura: はい、います。 |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Risa: またね！ (mata-ne!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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