Honorific

Production Rules:

Inflection Examples:

Irregulars:

* This is not actually honorific, since it applies only to inanimate things, however, it is often used in situations in which honorific forms are called for.

Usage Notes & Examples:

1. The above represents common patterns for how verbs are made honorific, but the fact is that keigo is extremely complex. There are many exceptions governing how particular verbs are made honorific, depending on what forms have survived to modern times, as well as particular ways of expressing certain sentiments. For instance, notice that "taberu" could not be used as a model verb here (see below) and that a different verb entirely is used in place of "shinu". It would be advisable to check a reliable source for any particular case.
2. Honorific forms are used only when a person other than the speaker (or a member of the speaker's group) is the subject. The subject of an honorific, in general, must be a person. This can be the listener or a third party. It elevates the position of the subject to show politeness to that person. This is a separate function from that provided by the "normal polite" forms ("desu", "masu"), which show politeness to the listener regardless of the subject. So for instance, if you're talking to an employee of a client company, you may speak of that company's president honorifically, but you still need the "masu" forms to show politeness to the employee you're speaking to. This remains true even if the subject of the honorific and the listener are the same person.
3. Note that some verbs have inherently polite or honorific counterparts that are used in their place when an honorific is called for, and the most common examples are listed in the irregulars table above.
4. For verbs that conjugate as noun + "suru", where the noun involved is of Chinese origin (i.e. the "on" reading of the kanji is used), generally the noun is prefixed with "go-" (sometimes o-) and "suru" becomes "nasaru".