Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 7: 10/18

お～になるTo do (Honorific)

Remember not to use honorific language when speaking about yourself and your actions!

Structure

お + Verb［stem］+ になる
ご(1) + ［する］Verb + になる
いく・くる・いる ￫ おいでになる

(1) お, limited to ［する］Verbs like: 電話(でんわ)する、勉強(べんきょう)する、散歩(さんぽ)する

Details

  • Polite

About お～になる

お～になる (or ご～になる) is an honorific language expression which is used to pay respect to the actions of the person that is being spoken to/another person (never the speaker). In this expression, になる is used in exactly the same way that する would be, except that it will be attached to the ます stem of the verb that it is referring to.

The primary difference between お and ご, is that お will be used with words/readings of Japanese origin (kun-yomi), and ご will be used with words/readings of Chinese origin (on-yomi). In fact, お and ご are both represented by the same kanji. For this kanji, 御(お) is one of the kun-yomi, and 御(ご) is one of the on-yomi.

Fun Fact

Some verbs, like いでる, are used almost exclusively with honorific language. おいでになる (the お～になる form of いでる) is an example of this, and can mean 'to come', 'to go', or 'to be'. This is due to the perspective of the speaker when using honorific language, and something that we will discuss in more detail later.

Related

Vocab Coverage

All Bunpro Vocab that appears on this item.

Examples

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  • 先生(せんせい)はお帰(かえ)りになりました。

    The teacher has gone home.

  • ハリーポッターをお読(よ)みになりましたか。

    Did you read Harry Potter?

  • 父上(ちちうえ)はもうお帰(かえ)りになったんですね。

    Father has already gone home, hasn't he.

  • 歯医者(はいしゃ)がお見(み)えになるのは３(さん)時(じ)です。

    The dentist will arrive at 3 o'clock.

  • お父(とう)さんは何時(なんじ)頃(ごろ)お帰(かえ)りになります？

    Around what time will father return home?

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  • Online

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        • [DBJG] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

          Page 36, 343 & 358

        • Genki II 1st Edition

          Page 138

        • Genki II 2nd Edition

          Page 169

        • Genki II 3rd Edition

          Page 165

        • Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide

          Page 229

        • みんなの日本語 II

          Page 150 [CH 49]

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      お～になる – Grammar Discussion

      Most Recent Replies (27 in total)

      • nekoyama

        nekoyama

        You’re mixing up two different concepts.

        • です・ます expresses politeness vs. the person we’re speaking with, regardless of the content of the conversation.
        • おーになる expresses respect vs. the person we’re talking about and who’s doing an action.

        These can be the same person, but they don’t have to be the same person.

        "Miku read a manga" polite vs. listener respectful vs. Miku
        ミクさんは漫画を読んだ no no
        ミクさんは漫画を読みました yes no
        ミクさんは漫画をお読みになった no yes
        ミクさんは漫画をお読みになりました yes yes

        Additionally, polite forms generally only appear at the end of a sentence. Respectful (and humble) forms can appear anywhere someone does something, including the middle of a sentence three layers of re...

      • BreadmanNin

        BreadmanNin

        Hidden because this turned out to be an unintentional bug report instead of contributing to the grammar discussion

        Is this intended? The following sentence came up in my reviews, and I used なさる. Bunpro then gave a help message asking for a more old-fashioned expression. I couldn’t think of one, but apparently the solution was to use ~になる, which Bunpro describes as "a polite, modern expression.

      • Fuga

        Fuga

        Hey @BreadmanNin !

        This looked like an input error on our end so we have just fixed it!

        Thank you for letting us know about this!

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