Keigo Nouns
More Polite Versions of です
です→でございます
ですか→でしょうか
です
As previously covered, to make a noun polite you simply add です instead of だ。
- 猫です – It is a cat.
- ペンです – It is a pen.
However, there’s another form of です we need to talk about.
でございます
です originates from であります (and である)。(This is the simplest explanation).
ございます is the けんじょうご (humble) form of ある。This means that でございます sort of makes a noun humble (and therefore shows respect/politeness).
This is reflected in that you may use でございます for yourself, but not for others outside your group.
じゃない also came about the same way from ではありません→じゃありません→じゃない
Examples
- 猫でございます – It is a cat, sir
- ピザでございます – Your pizza, sir
- Bobでございます – I am bob↓/He (my coworker) is bob.
Common Mistakes
- AAさまでございます – This is AA↑↓✖. (さま elevates, でございます lowers)
- AAさまでいらっしゃいます – This is AA. (See Keigo Verbs)
Reference 1
Reference 2
です Origin Reference (Japanese)
でしょうか
Polite Question
だ Sentence: Change だ to でしょうか
To make a polite question, you can use ですか, however you can make this even more polite by using でしょうか. Grammatically, It functions identically to ですか。
でしょうか is the volitional form of です+か。 While the verb volitional ましょうか means “shall we”; でしょうか means something like “is it likely?”
- それは本でしょうか？ – Is that a book?
- 清水さまでしょうか？ – Are you Shimizu さま?
ます form verbs are not grammatically allowed to precede です。This applies to でしょうか as well:
- 食べますでしょうか？✖ →食べますか？〇→おめしあがりますか？〇
- 何になさいますでしょうか？ ✖ → 何になさいますか？〇
However this is a really, really common mistake, especially with young people. It sounds a little more “positive”, and you will probably be able to get away with it.
Respectful and Humble Nouns
Fortunately, there’s not too many special nouns for humility and respect that you need to know right now. There’s actually a lot of them, but unless you’re going to be doing a lot of work in a company talking to other companies, you don’t need to know them. We’ll cover them later in N1/N2 material
| Meaning | Normal | Respectful | Humble |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr./Mrs. | さん | さま | No honorific |
| "Us" | ”たち” | ✖ | ども |
| Person | 人 | かた | もの |
| X People | ～人 | X めいさま | |
| Father | おとうさん | おとうさん | ちち |
| Mother | おかあさん | おかあさん | はは |
| Brother (Older) | あに | おにいさん | △ |
| Sister (Older) | あね | おねえさん | △ |
| Brother (Younger) | おとうと | おとうとさん | △ |
| Sister (Younger) | いもうと | いもうとさん | △ |
- The most important words in the chart are さま、もの、and かた
- The rest are extra.
- A △ means it exists, but you really don’t need to know it right now, maybe ever.
See also Keigo Verbs and お/ご Beautification