The Basics of the Japanese Keigo System: Sonkeigo, Kenjougo and Teineigo

Keigo is the topic most learners dread in advance. Yet I love teaching it, because once we map out its logic, it suddenly becomes simple. Japanese keigo is not a random collection of polite words, but a very consistent system that answers a single question: who ranks higher in this situation?

If you can answer that one question, the rest becomes almost automatic. Let's look at the three main categories together, and how to use them in practice.

Because Japanese linguistic politeness isn't stylistic decoration — it's a mandatory grammatical choice. In Hungarian you can choose to address someone informally or formally, but the sentence structure stays the same. In Japanese, the politeness level changes the verb, the pronoun, and sometimes even the noun.

In workplace reality this has concrete consequences. Someone who speaks to a client without keigo isn't seen as "direct" but as disrespectful. On the other hand, someone who forces overly complex keigo in a friendly situation comes across as distant and artificial. The goal is the level that fits the situation.

And there's a practical aspect too: keigo appears starting from JLPT N3, and features prominently at N2 and N1. There's no way around it.

A keigo a leggyakoribb pont, ahol az önálló tanulás megreked, mert itt a visszajelzés nélkülözhetetlen. Ha munkahelyi helyzetekre készülsz, a vállalati japán nyelvórákon valós szituációkban — telefonos ügyintézés, e-mail, tárgyalás — gyakoroljuk az udvariassági szinteket.

• 丁寧語 (teineigo) — polite language: です／ます. Basic politeness toward the listener.
• 尊敬語 (sonkeigo) — respectful language: elevates the OTHER person's action.
• 謙譲語 (kenjougo) — humble language: lowers YOUR OWN action.
• 美化語 (bikago) — beautifying language: お茶, ご飯 — general polishing of speech.

The most common learner mistake is thinking sonkeigo and kenjougo are "the same, just more polite." They're not. The two point in opposite directions: one elevates, the other lowers — and you always need to apply the one matching whoever is performing the action.

The です／ます form is the level with which you'll practically never go wrong. With strangers, teachers, clerks, or shop staff, it's always acceptable.

• 行きます／行きません／行きました — basic polite conjugation.
• です／でした／ではありません — nominal predicate.
• ございます — the elevated, business version of です.
• よろしいですか — a more polite form of いいですか.

As a beginner, you're fully justified in staying exclusively at this level for your first six months. It's much better to speak purely in です／ます than to mix keigo levels incorrectly.

Sonkeigo elevates another person's action. There are three main formation patterns, plus a list of irregular verbs.

• お + masu-stem + になる: 読む → お読みになる.
• Polite use of the passive form: 行く → 行かれる.
• Irregular verbs: 言う → おっしゃる, 来る／行く／いる → いらっしゃる, 食べる／飲む → 召し上がる, 見る → ご覧になる, する → なさる.

Kenjougo lowers your own (or your group's) action, thereby indirectly elevating the other person.

• お + masu-stem + する／いたす: 待つ → お待ちいたします.
• Irregular verbs: 言う → 申す／申し上げる, 行く／来る → 参る, いる → おる, 見る → 拝見する, する → いたす, もらう → いただく.
• Important: these are NEVER used for the other party.

• With clients, guests, customers — always, without exception.
• With superiors, teachers, older colleagues.
• At a first meeting with anyone, until the relationship is clarified.
• In written business communication, emails, and applications.
• On the phone, even when you don't know who's on the other end of the line.

And when should you avoid it? Among friends, family, and close colleagues. If someone is already speaking to you in a direct tone and you stubbornly reply in keigo, you create distance — which is sometimes exactly the wrong message.

This is the most important and least commonly taught part of keigo. Japanese divides the world into an inner circle (内, uchi) and an outer circle (外, soto). When talking to an outside party about your own company or family, you use the humble form — even if the person in question is your boss.

• Within the company: 社長がおっしゃいました。(sonkeigo)
• Talking to a client about your own boss: 社長が申しました。(kenjougo!)
• About your own family to a stranger: 母が申しております。
• About the client's company: 御社 / 貴社; about your own: 弊社 / 当社.

This rule causes the most headaches for foreign employees, because in the Hungarian mindset we always speak of our boss with respect. In Japan, the group boundary is stronger than the internal hierarchy.

• Using kenjougo for the other party: 部長、何を申しましたか。— a serious mistake.
• Double keigo (二重敬語): お召し上がりになられる — excessive, incorrect.
• Mixing up the ら-less passive: sonkeigo requires 見られる instead of 見れる.
• Elevating your own boss in front of a client.
• Mixing keigo and casual form within a single sentence.
• Dropping です／ます halfway through: 行った、そして参りました。

• "I'll take a look." — neutral: 見ます。／ kenjougo: 拝見いたします。
• "Have you had a look?" — sonkeigo: ご覧になりましたか。
• "I'll be waiting." — お待ちしております。
• "What is your name?" — お名前を伺ってもよろしいでしょうか。
• "I'll come to you." — そちらに参ります。
• "Please come in." — どうぞお入りください。

In lessons we don't learn keigo from a table, but through situations: reception conversations, phone calls, emails, receiving clients. That way you don't memorize — you use it.

Speech-focused, personalized Japanese lessons online and in Budapest.