Japanese politeness is often described as a single scale from casual to formal. It is not. Keigo comprises three systems that operate on different parts of the sentence, and the frequent intermediate error is treating them as interchangeable grades of the same thing.
The three systems
| System | Japanese | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Polite | 丁寧語 teineigo | polite toward the listener — the -masu/desu baseline |
| Respectful | 尊敬語 sonkeigo | elevates the other person's actions |
| Humble | 謙譲語 kenjougo | lowers your own actions |
Teineigo is about who you are talking to. Sonkeigo and kenjougo are about who is doing the action — and choosing between them depends entirely on whether that person is them or you.
The same verb, three ways
| Plain | Polite | Respectful | Humble | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| する | します | なさる | いたす | to do |
| 行く | 行きます | いらっしゃる | 参る | to go |
| 来る | 来ます | いらっしゃる | 参る | to come |
| いる | います | いらっしゃる | おる | to be |
| 食べる | 食べます | 召し上がる | いただく | to eat |
| 言う | 言います | おっしゃる | 申す | to say |
| 見る | 見ます | ご覧になる | 拝見する | to see |
Note that いらっしゃる covers go, come and be — three plain verbs collapse into one respectful form, which is a small mercy.
The classic mistake: answering 何を召し上がりますか — what will you eat, respectful — with 召し上がります about yourself. You must use いただきます. Applying sonkeigo to your own actions elevates yourself, which lands as arrogance rather than as a grammar slip.
The regular patterns
Most verbs without a special form use a construction instead:
| Type | Pattern | Example from 読む |
|---|---|---|
| Respectful | お + stem + になる | お読みになる |
| Respectful | passive form | 読まれる |
| Humble | お + stem + する | お読みする |
The passive-as-respectful is worth flagging: 読まれました can mean "was read" or "read (respectful)", and only context separates them.
Uchi and soto decide everything
The rule that surprises learners most is that keigo depends on group membership, not on rank alone. Your own group — uchi, inside — is lowered when speaking to outsiders, soto, even if the person is your boss.
| Situation | Referring to your boss |
|---|---|
| Talking to your boss | sonkeigo — 部長がおっしゃいました |
| Talking to a client about your boss | kenjougo — 田中が申しました |
To a client you drop the honorific 部長 and even the -san, referring to your own superior by bare surname. To an outsider, your entire company is uchi and gets lowered together.
Nouns take prefixes too
お and ご attach to nouns — お名前, ご住所, お電話. Roughly, お goes with native Japanese readings and ご with Sino-Japanese ones. Some have fused permanently: ご飯, お茶 and お金 are simply the normal words now.
A realistic order
Master teineigo first and use it everywhere — it is correct with almost any adult and offends nobody. Learn to recognise sonkeigo and kenjougo next, because you will hear them constantly in shops and offices long before you need to produce them.
Produce them last, starting with the fixed set-pieces that do most of the work: いらっしゃいませ, 少々お待ちください, 申し訳ございません, かしこまりました. Japanese service language is highly formulaic, and a handful of memorised phrases covers a surprising share of real situations while the system itself settles.
Look up Japanese verbs and their keigo forms
The free English-Japanese Dictionary gives dictionary forms with readings in kana, which is where every keigo transformation starts. Works offline.
Open the dictionary appFrequently asked questions
Do I need keigo as a beginner?
You need teineigo, the -masu and desu forms, immediately — that is the baseline politeness of ordinary adult conversation. Sonkeigo and kenjougo can wait until you are working in Japanese or dealing with customers, though recognising them is useful much earlier.
What is the difference between sonkeigo and kenjougo?
Sonkeigo elevates the other person's actions; kenjougo lowers your own. Both produce the same net effect of showing respect, but they are applied to different subjects. Using sonkeigo about yourself is the classic error, and it sounds arrogant rather than merely wrong.
Is keigo declining among young Japanese speakers?
Usage varies by setting, and some elaborate forms are heard less in casual life. But keigo remains firmly required in business, service work and formal settings, and new employees are routinely trained in it — which is itself evidence that it is not disappearing.