JAPAN 202 Midterm

Honorific verbs

Used to describe the actions of people whom you respect

• an honorific verb is used in place of a normal verb for talking about something done by someone higher up in the social hierarchy or someone you don’t know very well

For activities that lack specific honorific forms, the respect factor is added by

1. using 〜ていらっしゃる instead of 〜ている, if the sentence has the helping verb ている

   • 話しています → 話していらっしゃる

2. flanking a verb stem with お and になる

   • 帰ります → お帰りになります

Giving respectful advice

お + verb stem + ください is the form used when the advice being given, or the action being encouraged to take, is for the benefit of the recipient

• in situations where the recipient doesn’t benefit from the request, for example しおをおとり, いただけませんか should be used and not お + verb stem + ください

• with most する compound verbs, the prefix ご should be added instead of お

  • ちゅういする → ごちゅういする

表現ノート

Honorific form of nouns and adjectives

Some nouns and adjectives are made into honorific forms by adding the prefixes お or ご

Words that use the honorific prefix お are originated in Japanese

• お名前

• おしごと

• お好き

• お元気

• おたばこ

• おいそがしい

Words that use the honorific prefix ご are originated in Chinese

• ご両親

• ご兄弟

• ご病気

• ご主人

• ご親切

Some other words are replaced by vocabulary items

• 家 → おたく

• 子供 → おこさん

• だれ → どなた・どちらさま

• どうですか → いかがですか

• どこ → どちら

たら in polite speech

While normally conditional たら is based on the past tense short form, in honorific speech たら is added to long form

それで・そして・それから

• それで: “and therefore”, to introduce the consequence of what comes before it

• そして: “and in addition”, to say something notable

• それから: “and then”, to add an item that comes later in time or in the order of importance

〜てくれてありがとう

This form is used when you want to express gratitude to someone for a specific action → 手伝ってくれてありがとう

• if you’re thinking of thanking someone with whom honorific language is required, use てくださってありがとうございました

〜ないで

If you do something without doing something else, the action performed can be expressed with present tense ないで

• 昨日の夜は、ねないで、べんきょうしました (studied without getting any sleep)

やすい・にくい

やすい

Adding the suffix やすい to a verb stem is used to describe that something is easy to do

• conjugate like an い-adj with verb stem + やすい

  • 使う → 使いやすい

  • 読む → 読みやすい

にくい

Adding the suffix にくい to a verb stem is used to describe that something is hard to do

• conjugates the same way as やすい

  • 食べる → 食べにくい

  • ねる → ねにくい

Sometimes the subject of a やすい・にくい sentence is a place (easy/difficult to do something there) or a tool (easy or difficult to use for some purpose)

• この町はとても住みやすいです。

• このくつは歩きにくいです。

やすい and にくい tend to focus on the psychological ease or difficulty of doing something when you use them with verbs describing actions, using it in the context of a physical or statistical success rate can be odd

〜方

方 is a noun forming suffix that follows the stem of a verb and means “the way in which an action is performed” or “how to do”

• with nouns, their usual marker is replace with の before the 方

  • 漢字を読む → 漢字の読み方

  • はしを使う → はしの使い方

  • 空港に行く → 空港の行く方

• with compound する verbs, they’ll take on a の for the particle that precedes the する

  • 日本語を勉強する → 日本語の勉強のし方

• 方 itself is a noun and is followed by は and が

  • このやさいの食べ方はイロリオあります

Extra-modest expressions

Used to talk modestly about our own actions (similar in politeness to ending a sentence with sir or ma’am) and almost always used in their long form

• the most common context to use extra-modest verbs is with very formal occasions, like introducing yourself during a job interview, or to talk about your own family or company you work for

  • 私はきむけしともうします。

  • お手あらいは二かいでございます。→ note that ございます is only used by service industry workers (retail, etc)

Humble expression

When doing something out of respect for somebody, you can sometimes describe your action using a verb in the humble pattern お + verb stem + する

• this humble pattern is different from お + verb stem + になる because the former demotes the actor while the latter promotes the actor

There are exceptions to this formation:

• する compound verbs → take on the prefix お or ご

  • 昨日お電話話した田中です。

• もらう・あげる → possess their own special replacement verbs of いただく and さしあげる respectively

  • 私は先生にこの本をいただきました。

  • 私は先生に花をさしあげました。

• うかがう → portrays you as the speaker as humble in the action of asking and/or visiting

  • 私は先生に花をテストについてうかがいました。

The difference between extra-modest and humble is that the former shows respect to the listeners you’re talking to, while the latter shows respect to someone that appears in the event you’re describing

Name という item

When you want to talk about a person or thing that goes by a certain name, in order to give context to the listener in case they are unfamiliar with it, you can use という

• ポチという犬です。

• エドモントンという町からまいりました。

Questions with larger sentences

Embedded question clauses have two forms:

Case 1: question word か

The clause ends in the question particle か when it contains a question words like だれ or なに

• 山下先生は昨日何を食べたか覚えんていません。

• メアリーさんがどこに住んでいるか知っていますか。

Case 2: yes or no question かどうか

The clause ends with かどうか when it doesn’t contain the case one indicators

• 週末、旅行にいくかどうかきめましょう。

• 字が書けるかどうかわかりません。

Formation in short is question word か・yes/no question かどうか → わかりません・知っています・etc

• The present tense short form だ which is normally used with a な-adj or noun at the end of the clause is usually dropped

  • だれが一番上手だかわかりません。

• We often use the particle が with the subject of an embedded sentence where は is expected question, thus for the embedded question corresponding to the direct question たけしさんはだれが好きですか。→ 私は武さんがだれが好き知っています。