敬語を運用するOperational Keigo
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Explain, in plain terms, the difference among 丁寧語 (polite language), 尊敬語 (respectful language), and 謙譲語 (humble language), and identify which one a given sentence uses.
- Use いたします to describe your own actions humbly in institutional contexts such as meetings, requests, and interviews.
- Use いただく to describe receiving an action from someone of higher status, and distinguish it from ordinary もらう.
- Use くださる to describe someone of higher status giving you something or doing something for you, and distinguish it from ordinary くれる.
- Recognize and produce a small set of expanded respectful and humble verb patterns beyond the basic keigo introduced in earlier volumes.
- Identify and correct common instances of over-politeness (excessive or doubled keigo) and under-politeness (plain or casual forms used where an institutional register is expected).
- Read and write short institutional emails, formal requests, apologies, and invitations using an appropriate level of keigo.
- Participate in a formal meeting-like or interview-like exchange using keigo appropriately, without over-applying it to every verb in every sentence.
Communication Scenario
Emma has been accepted for a short internship interview at a nonprofit organization connected to the 地域リサイクル制度 project her study group has been researching all unit. Before the interview, she needs to write a formal email confirming the appointment, prepare polite ways to talk about her own actions and the interviewer's actions, and practice not sliding into either overly casual speech (which would seem disrespectful) or overly stacked, redundant keigo (which would sound stiff and unnatural even to native speakers). Her mentor, 佐藤さん, offers to review her email and rehearse the interview with her, correcting places where she has either underused or overused polite language. This chapter teaches you the tools Emma needs: humble language for describing your own actions, respectful language for describing someone else's actions, and the judgment to apply keigo naturally rather than mechanically.
- The learner distinguishes polite, respectful, and humble language and identifies which is used in a given sentence.
- The learner uses いたします, いただく, and くださる accurately in institutional contexts.
- The learner identifies and corrects instances of over-politeness and under-politeness in written and spoken Japanese.
- The learner reads and writes a formal institutional email using appropriate keigo.
- The learner participates in a formal spoken exchange, such as an interview or meeting greeting, using keigo naturally.
Core Vocabulary
This chapter's vocabulary supports meetings, requests, apologies, invitations, interviews, and institutional communication. All items below are active for production.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 面接 | めんせつ | interview | noun; often with を受ける |
| 依頼する | いらいする | to request (formally) | する-verb; more formal than お願いする alone |
| お詫び | おわび | apology (formal) | noun; more formal than ごめんなさい |
| 招待する | しょうたいする | to invite | する-verb; formal invitation |
| 担当者 | たんとうしゃ | the person in charge | noun; institutional reference |
| 恐縮です | きょうしゅくです | I am much obliged / I'm sorry to trouble you | formulaic; softens a request or apology |
| 承知する | しょうちする | to understand, to accept (humble) | humble alternative to 分かる in institutional contexts |
| 確認する | かくにんする | to confirm | する-verb; common in institutional email |
| 都合 | つごう | convenience, circumstances | noun; used in scheduling requests |
| お手数 | おてすう | trouble, inconvenience (formal) | used in お手数をおかけします |
All items above are productive at this chapter's level. Some appear only in fixed, formulaic combinations, which are noted where relevant.
れんしゅう — Practice: Write one original sentence using each vocabulary item above, in a context involving a meeting, request, apology, invitation, or interview.
Script and Orthography Focus
This chapter's script focus is institutional email formatting, formal notices, formal request layout, and high-formality set phrases. No new kanji readings beyond the vocabulary above are introduced.
Formal Japanese emails follow a recognizable layout: a brief greeting, a self-identification line, the main request or notice, a closing formula such as よろしくお願いいたします, and a sign-off with the sender's name. This chapter's Reading and Writing sections use this layout. Furigana appears only on 依頼, 担当, 承知, and 確認 the first time each appears in a passage, matching this volume's exceptional-furigana policy.
Continue using Arabic numerals for dates, times, and reference numbers in institutional writing, as in earlier chapters.
れんしゅう — Practice: Before reading the Reading Practice email below, predict what greeting and closing formulas it is likely to contain, based on the pattern described above.
Pronunciation and Listening Focus
Formal requests and apologies in Japanese are often produced with a slower rate, a slight lengthening on key words such as 恐縮です, and a falling, measured intonation rather than the brisker rhythm of casual conversation. In this chapter's Listening Practice, listen for these prosodic cues as one signal (among others, such as vocabulary and verb forms) that a speaker has shifted into an institutional register.
Continue maintaining mora timing, vowel length, moraic ん, and phrase-level intonation as in previous chapters. No new pitch-accent notation is introduced in this chapter.
Grammar: Operational Keigo
This chapter activates expanded respectful and humble patterns for productive use, building on the recognition-level keigo introduced in Volume III. The three systems below — いたします, いただく, and くださる — along with the distinction among 丁寧語, 尊敬語, and 謙譲語, are now productive.
Three kinds of polite language
Purpose: to understand why Japanese has more than one system of politeness, and to identify which system a given sentence is using.
| System | What it does | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 丁寧語 (polite language) | Makes a sentence polite regardless of whose action it describes | 行きます／食べます | The familiar です／ます style from earlier volumes |
| 尊敬語 (respectful language) | Raises the status of someone else's action — usually the listener's or a third party's | いらっしゃる／召し上がる | Never used for the speaker's own action |
| 謙譲語 (humble language) | Lowers the status of the speaker's own action, indirectly raising the listener | いたす／いただく | Never used for someone else's action |
A frequent learner error is applying respectful language to one's own actions or humble language to someone else's actions. The building blocks below keep this distinction clear by tying each pattern to who performs the action.
いたします — Humbly describing your own actions
Purpose: to describe an action you yourself will perform, in a way that lowers your own action and raises the listener, appropriate for institutional requests, offers, and self-introductions.
いただく — Humbly receiving an action
Purpose: to describe receiving a benefit, favor, or action from someone of higher status or greater social distance, in contexts such as requests, thanks, and permission.
くださる — Respectfully receiving from someone else's giving
Purpose: to describe someone of higher status or greater social distance giving something to you or doing something for you, framed with respect toward that person.
Correcting over-politeness and under-politeness
Two common learner errors run in opposite directions. Under-politeness occurs when a learner uses plain or casual です／ます-level language in a context that calls for keigo, such as addressing an interviewer with 分かりました instead of 承知いたしました. Over-politeness occurs when a learner stacks multiple honorific markers onto a single verb, or applies keigo to every verb in a sentence regardless of who performs the action, producing something that sounds unnatural even to fluent speakers — for example, doubling a respectful and humble form on the same verb, or using いたします to describe someone else's action. The goal of this chapter is not "more keigo is always better," but keigo applied accurately to the correct person's action, in the correct register for the setting.
Grammar Practice
- Rewrite the following plain-style self-introduction using いたします where appropriate: これから説明します。よろしくお願いします。
- Write one sentence using いただく to request that someone confirm a date by a certain deadline.
- Write one sentence using くださる to thank an interviewer for the opportunity of an interview.
- Identify the error in this sentence and correct it: 先生がいらっしゃいまして、私にいたしました。 (Explain why the second verb is incorrect.)
Model Dialogue
Setting: Emma calls the nonprofit organization to confirm her interview appointment. 山田様 is the staff member handling scheduling.
ないようりかい — Comprehension questions:
- Which phrase does Emma use to explain why she is calling, and which grammar point from this chapter does it contain?
- Identify one place where 山田様 uses respectful language for her own organization's staff member's action, and explain why this is still appropriate even though it describes an "insider" from the customer's perspective.
- Find one instance of いたします and one instance of a respectful form, and explain who performs each action.
Guided Practice
タスク１ — Register sorting. Read the following ten short sentences (to be provided by your instructor or drawn from the chapter's example sentences) and sort each into 丁寧語, 尊敬語, or 謙譲語.
タスク２ — Rewriting for register. Rewrite three plain-style institutional statements (a self-introduction, a request, and a thanks) using いたします, いただく, or くださる as appropriate.
タスク３ — Error hunt. Working with a partner, exchange three sentences you have written that intentionally contain one over-politeness error and one under-politeness error. Identify and correct your partner's errors.
Listening Practice
Ask your instructor, a partner, or a text-to-speech tool to read the following passage aloud at a natural pace.
きくタスク — A phone call confirming a meeting
お忙しいところ恐縮です。来週の会議についてご確認させていただきたく、ご連絡いたしました。会議室の準備は、当方でいたします。資料につきましては、事前にお送りいただけますでしょうか。ご都合がよろしければ、木曜日の午前十時からでお願いできればと存じます。ご不明な点がございましたら、いつでもお問い合わせくださいませ。
聞くタスク — Listening task: Identify (1) each use of いたします/いたす and whose action it describes, (2) each use of いただく and what is being requested, (3) the proposed day and time, and (4) the closing phrase inviting further questions.
Speaking Practice
コントロールされた練習 — Controlled practice: Choosing the right form
- それでは、私から＿＿＿＿＿いたします。
- お忙しいところ、＿＿＿＿＿いただき、ありがとうございます。
- 先生が＿＿＿＿＿くださいました。
コミュニケーションタスク — A short mock interview
With a partner, role-play a short interview: one partner plays an interviewer greeting a candidate and asking a simple question about their interest in the organization; the other plays the candidate, responding using いたします where appropriate and thanking the interviewer using くださる for the opportunity. Switch roles.
ひとりでもできる練習 — Solo practice: Recorded self-introduction
Record a 30–45 second formal self-introduction as if beginning a job interview, using at least one instance each of いたします, いただく, and くださる correctly. Listen back and check that no verb form describes the wrong person's action.
Reading Practice
Read the following institutional email, then answer the questions below. Furigana is provided only on the first occurrence of each new chapter kanji compound.
面接のご案内 — Notification of an Interview
エマ様
お世話になっております。〇〇団体の田中でございます。この度は、弊団体の依頼にご対応いただき、誠にありがとうございます。面接の日程につきまして、下記の通りご案内いたします。
日時：来週水曜日 午後二時より
場所：〇〇団体 会議室
担当：田中
ご都合がよろしければ、このままお進めいただければと存じます。もしご都合が悪い場合は、お手数ですが、今週中にご連絡くださいますようお願いいたします。ご確認のほど、よろしくお願いいたします。
〇〇団体 田中
ないようりかい — Comprehension questions:
- What is the purpose of this email, and what specific date, time, and location does it provide?
- Identify two uses of いたします/いただく and explain whose action each describes.
- What does the email ask Emma to do if the proposed time does not work for her?
- Identify the closing phrase and explain its function in this genre of writing.
Writing Workshop
In this workshop you will write a short formal email confirming an appointment, request, or invitation, using the institutional email layout modeled above.
- Open with a greeting appropriate to institutional email, such as お世話になっております.
- Identify yourself and your purpose for writing, using いたします for your own action where appropriate.
- State the main content — a confirmation, request, apology, or invitation — using accurate vocabulary from this chapter.
- Make any request of the reader using いただく, softened with 恐縮ですが or お手数ですが if appropriate.
- Close with a standard closing formula such as よろしくお願いいたします.
- Audit your email for over-politeness (stacked or misapplied keigo) and under-politeness (plain forms where keigo is expected), checking that every humble form describes your own action and every respectful form describes someone else's.
チェックリスト — Editing checklist:
- My email opens with an appropriate institutional greeting.
- I have used いたします only for my own actions.
- I have used いただく to describe something I am receiving or requesting from the reader.
- If I describe the reader's or a third party's action, I have used a respectful form, not a humble one.
- I have not stacked two honorific markers onto the same verb.
- My email closes with a standard closing formula.
- I have checked particles, predicate form, and register consistency throughout.
Culture and Communication
Keigo is often introduced to learners as a way of marking fixed social rank, but in practice it more often reflects the relationship between speaker, listener, and the situation at hand — an employee may use humble language about their own company's actions when speaking to an outside client, then use more neutral language among colleagues discussing the same event. The forms in this chapter should be understood as tools for managing a specific interaction, not as a permanent label for who a person is.
The specific phrases favored in institutional email, telephone greetings, and interview settings can vary somewhat by industry, generation, and individual organization, and some organizations maintain their own internal style guides. The patterns taught in this chapter are broadly usable defaults for general institutional and service contexts, not the only acceptable forms.
Even in a highly formal keigo-heavy sentence, the underlying plain-form verb and its particle frame remain unchanged; keigo adds a layer of social meaning on top of ordinary grammar rather than replacing it. If you are unsure how to build a respectful or humble form, it can help to first identify the plain verb and its particles, then apply the appropriate keigo pattern.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Error: 先生がいたします。 (using humble language to describe the teacher's action)
Correction: 先生がなさいます。 — use a respectful form for someone else's action, and reserve いたします for your own.
Error: Doubling a respectful prefix and a respectful auxiliary on the same verb, producing an overloaded and unnatural form.
Correction: Choose one respectful marking strategy per verb — either the prefix pattern or the auxiliary pattern — rather than combining both.
Error: Answering an interviewer's question with 分かった。 instead of a keigo-appropriate response.
Correction: 承知いたしました。 — maintain the institutional register consistently once it has been established, rather than shifting into casual speech under pressure.
Chapter Review
Section A — ごい (Vocabulary)
1. Write one original sentence for each vocabulary item in the Core Vocabulary table, applied to a meeting, request, apology, invitation, or interview context.
Section B — もじ (Script)
1. Write the readings for 依頼, 担当, 承知, and 確認 from memory, then check them against this chapter.
Section C — ぶんぽう (Grammar)
1. Explain, in your own words, the difference among 丁寧語, 尊敬語, and 謙譲語, giving one original example of each.
2. Write three original sentences, one each using いたします, いただく, and くださる correctly.
Section D — どっかいりかい (Reading comprehension)
1. Look again at the Reading Practice email above. Summarize, in English, its purpose, its key details, and its request of the reader.
Section E — かくこと (Writing)
1. Complete your formal email following the Writing Workshop steps, as part of the Practical Performance Task below.
Section F — はなすこと (Speaking)
1. Present or record the mock interview or self-introduction from Speaking Practice, as part of the Practical Performance Task below.
Practical Performance Task
パフォーマンスタスク
敬語を運用する — Operating keigo in a real interaction
Complete both parts below to demonstrate control of this chapter's systems.
- Written formal email: Write a five-to-eight sentence institutional email confirming an appointment, making a request, or extending an invitation, using at least one instance each of いたします, いただく, and an appropriate closing formula. Audit it using the Writing Workshop checklist before submitting.
- Spoken formal interaction: Perform a two-to-three minute mock interview or formal phone call with a partner or instructor, using keigo consistently and correctly, and self-correct at least one instance of over- or under-politeness if your partner or instructor points one out.
Assessment focus: accurate distinction among 丁寧語, 尊敬語, and 謙譲語; correct and non-stacked use of いたします, いただく, and くださる; consistent institutional register throughout; accurate use of this chapter's vocabulary; comprehensible pronunciation with appropriate formal prosody; and correct institutional email formatting.
Answer Key
Vocabulary and Script Review
Open-ended for original sentences; check readings for 依頼 (いらい), 担当 (たんとう), 承知 (しょうち), and 確認 (かくにん) against this chapter.
Grammar Practice
Model answers: (1) これからご説明いたします。よろしくお願いいたします。 (2) 恐縮ですが、来週までにご確認いただけますでしょうか。 (3) 面接の機会をくださり、誠にありがとうございます。 (4) The verb いたしました incorrectly describes the teacher's own action with humble language; it should be a respectful form such as なさいました, since いたす may only describe the speaker's own action.
Model Dialogue — Comprehension
- Emma uses お電話いたしました to explain why she is calling, which contains this chapter's いたします pattern.
- 山田様 says 田中がご案内いたします, using humble language for her own organization's staff member (田中) when speaking to an outside caller (Emma); this is appropriate because, from the caller's perspective, both 山田様 and 田中 belong to the "in-group" whose actions should be described humbly toward the outside caller.
- お電話いたしました (Emma's own action, humble) and お待たせいたしました (山田様's own action, humble) are two examples of いたします; a respectful form would instead be used if either speaker described the other's action, such as if Emma asked whether 田中 would "meet" her, phrased respectfully.
Listening Practice — Model summary
The caller uses ご連絡いたしました and いたします for their own side's actions (confirming the meeting, preparing the room), uses いただけますでしょうか to request that materials be sent in advance, proposes Thursday at ten in the morning, and closes by inviting further questions with お問い合わせくださいませ.
Reading Practice — Comprehension
- The email confirms the date, time, and location of Emma's interview: next Wednesday at two in the afternoon, at the organization's meeting room, with 田中 as the contact.
- ご案内いたします describes the sender's (田中's) own action of providing the notification; ご対応いただき describes Emma's action of responding to the organization's request, framed with respect toward Emma.
- The email asks Emma to contact them by the end of the week if the proposed time does not work for her.
- The closing phrase よろしくお願いいたします signals the end of the message and a general request for goodwill or cooperation; it is a standard, largely fixed closing formula in institutional Japanese correspondence.
Chapter Review — Sections A and B
Open-ended; check against the Core Vocabulary and Script and Orthography Focus sections above.
Chapter Review — Section C
See the grammar explanations and model answers above.
Chapter Review — Section D
See the Reading Practice comprehension answers above.
Chapter Review — Sections E and F, and Practical Performance Task
These are open-ended production tasks. Evaluate the written email against the Writing Workshop checklist above, and evaluate the spoken interaction against the assessment focus listed under the Practical Performance Task.
Looking Ahead
いまできること — What you can do now
You can distinguish polite, respectful, and humble language; use いたします, いただく, and くださる accurately in institutional contexts; identify and correct over-politeness and under-politeness; and read and write a formal institutional email. Chapter 7 turns to meetings and negotiation, building on this chapter's register control to practice turn-taking, proposals, and compromise in a professional setting.