Humble language: What is 謙譲語 (kenjōgo) in Japanese?

In Japanese, 謙譲語[kenjōgo] or “humble language” is a deferent way of speaking, one that lowers or humbles the speaker in comparison to a more powerful or respected person. It is one of the main types of Japanese honorific language, or 敬語[keigo].

Unlike polite language and respectful language, 謙譲語[ kenjōgo] is confined to quite formal situations, so you’re most likely to use this type of language in a business setting, like when interacting with customers or sending formal emails. Still, they’re still pretty common, so learning to use this style of speech is an important part of learning Japanese!

In this post, we’ll focus on how to use #4 謙譲語[kenjōgo] and #5 丁重語[ teichōgo], also known as 謙譲語 II[ kenjōgo 2], to express modesty. Let’s dive right in!

In Japanese, you’ll use humble language, or 謙譲語[kenjōgo], to show respect to your listener by “lowering” yourself, implying that your actions were done “humbly” in comparison to a respected listener.

This means that you should use humble language exclusively to talk about yourself, when you describe yourself or your own actions. It’s not appropriate to describe the actions of someone you want to respect with humble expressions.

When you want to speak humbly in Japanese, you’ll generally use a special form of the verb describing your own actions, but you may also change the forms of nouns you use to describe yourself.

Because humble expressions are very formal, you won’t use them much in everyday conversation, but you’re quite likely to encounter them in the workplace or in more formal interactions.

Let’s see how to form them.

In Japanese, some verbs have special, irregular, humble forms, while others follow a regular pattern. In this section, we’ll look at each of these types of verbs, then look at some special verb constructions like how to make humble te-iru constructions. Let’s have a look!

Most Japanese nouns do not have humble forms, but a select few use the formal prefixes お[o] and ご[go] to make them sound more humble. For example:

Though there are exceptions, these prefixes follow the same rules we have seen in other contexts:

• お[o] usually accompanies words of Japanese origin.

• ご[ga] is used words of Chinese origin.

In Japanese, you’ll often find you need to use humble speech, 謙譲語[kenjōgo], alongside respectful speech, 尊敬語[sonkeigo]. This is because humble speech is usually used when there is a social superior present to whom we want to show extra respect.

In conversations like this, you’ll use humble language to refer to yourself and your actions, while using respectful language to refer to the superior and their actions. You’ll have to be very careful, therefore, to use each form in the right place! Let’s see what this looks like:

Notice that the respected person’s actions are always in respectful speech, while the speaker’s own actions are described humbly.

As you saw in the verb chart above, the Japanese verbs for giving and receiving each have special humble forms:

The humble verbs いただく[itadaku] and 差し上げる[sashiageru] can be used exactly like their non-humble counterparts, including as helping verbs.

That being said, you can still use the constructions below to describe actions taken on as favors:

• Verb
  te-form

  いただく

  itadaku

  receive

  =

  a respected person did you a favor

• Verb
  te-form

  差し上げる

  sashiageru

  give

  =

  action humbly done for someone else (rare)

In business settings, you’ll very often hear one particular use of the construction, in which the verb いただく used alongside a causative verb in te-form:

Using this construction implies that a respected person has given you the gift of allowing you to do something. It’s a little bit like using the English phrase “please allow me to [verb].” It’s a helpful phrasing in a business environment, but don’t overuse it. Doing so can be seen as strange.

Also, notice that the causative verb is not in a humble form. To do this would be to use “double” humble language, which is considered inelegant and excessive.

In Japanese, courteous speech, or 丁重語[teichōgo], is something like humble speech, except that it is used to show deference to an occasion or situation, rather than to some particular person. You’ll most often use this style during the sorts of events you might dress up for, like a graduation or funeral.

You can also hear this used in some other situations where you want to show respect, but there is no specific “target” of the respect or the target of respect is an inanimate object. Therefore you might also hear these expressions in general statements or announcements.

• Announcement on a train platform:

  まもなく電車が参ります。

  Mamonaku densha ga mairimasu.

  A train will come momentarily.

• Showing respect for a season:

  梅雨明けが近づいてまいりました 。

  Tsuyu ake ga chikazuite mairimashita.

  The end of the rainy season draws near.

Often the courteous form and the humble form of a word will be exactly the same. However, there are some words with slightly different courteous forms:

• Special courteous forms:

  A few Japanese verbs that have special courteous forms. The verbs on this list are shown in polite form because the situations of their use require such formality that they are never seen in plain form in modern Japanese.

  * In some dialects of western Japan, おる[oru] can also be used as a humble form, instead of いる[iru].

  Standard form	Courteous form	English
  言う iu	申します mōshimasu	to be called
  いる iru	おります* orimasu	to exist (living thing)
  ある aru	ございます gozaimasu	to exist (non-living things)
  思う omou	存じます zonjimasu	to think

• Suru-verbs:

  When putting a suru-verb like 説明する[setsumei suru](to explain) into a courteous form, you’ll follow more-or-less the same pattern that you do for humble verb, with two slight differences:

  • The prefix ご[go] should be left off courteous forms.

  • Usually we use the humble form of する[suru]: いたします[itashimasu]

  Compare the sentences below:

  • humble form

    来月ご連絡します。

    Raigetsu gorenraku shimasu.

    I will contact you next month.

    → addressing a collaborator at another company
  • courteous form

    来月 連絡いたします。

    Raigetsu renraku itashimasu.

    I will contact you next month.

    → a club organizer sending out an announcement to the membership

• Courteous nouns:

  A number of nouns commonly used in ceremonial or business settings have their own courteous forms (in addition to those that take prefixes お[o] and ご[go]). These words are generally “kango,” meaning that they are read using the Chinese readings (on’yomi) of their kanji characters. For the purpose of humility one of the characters involved often has a negative meaning, or a meaning expressing smallness or insignificance.

  Kanji and meaning	Courteous nouns
  拙 unskillful; clumsy	拙著 setcho (one’s own) book, work
  	拙宅 settaku (one’s humble) abode
  小 small	小生 shōsei I, me (masculine)
  	小社 shōsha (one’s own) company
  弊 wrong; harmful	弊社 heisha (one’s own) company
  	弊店 heiten (one’s own) shop
  愚 foolish	愚息 gusoku (one’s own) son
  	愚見 guken (one’s own) humble opinion
  	愚作 gusaku (one’s own) creative work
  粗 coarse; rough	寸志 sunshi a small gift (from the speaker)
  卑 base; vulgar	卑見 hiken one’s own humble opinion

You’ll notice that there is a lot of overlap in the meanings of these terms, so speakers and writers have lots of options to choose from. It’s important to note that these are just expressions that do not carry the literal meanings of the characters used to write them. For example, someone referring to their own company as 弊社[heisha] does not mean that their company is bad or harmful.

In this post we introduced you to 謙譲語[kenjōgo], or “humble language” and 丁重語[teichōgo], “courteous language” in Japanese. Here are the major takeaways:

• Humble language should be used to “lower” yourself in the face of someone you want to respect. Courteous language is similar, but is used to defer to an occasion or general situation instead.

• Humble and courteous speech should mostly be used to describe yourself or your own actions. However, it can also sometimes be used to describe the actions of someone else in your group, as long as you are speaking to a respected outsider.

• Humble verbs may have special, irregular forms, or they may follow one of the patterns below:

  • お

    o

    Verb
    masu-stem

    する

    suru

  • ご

    go

    Verb
    masu-stem

    する

    suru

  • Courteous verbs sometimes look just like humble ones, but there are some verbs with special forms in this usage.

Phew! That was a lot! Thanks for reading, and please check out these Japanese humble speech exercises for more practice!