Striking round red wooden statues of faces in Japan

Study Resource: Japanese honorific titles

By: Mayumi Ito

Associated Articles

These activities are part of our Japanese Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

Japanese honorific titles

These are some of the most common Japanese honorific titles. We've noted whether each one is used with a person's given name, full name, surname, or job title.

Politeness	Honorific	Use for...	Add to...	Example
Very polite	様 sama	Customers	Surname	佐藤様[Satō sama]
		Recipients of letters	Full Name	佐藤洋子様[Satō Yōko sama]
		Members of the royal family	Given Name	愛子様[Aiko sama]
Polite	さん san	Classmates, coworkers, acquaintances	Surname	佐藤さん[Satō san]
	さん san	Classmates, coworkers, acquaintances	Given Name	洋子さん[Yōko san]
	先生 sensei	Teachers, doctors, lawyers, authors	Surname	佐藤先生[Satō sensei]
	先生 sensei	Teachers, doctors, lawyers, authors	Given Name	洋子先生[Yōko sensei]
	先輩 senpai	Older students or team members; coworkers with longer career	Surname	佐藤先輩[Satō senpai]
	氏 shi	For a third person, usually a man, in formal settings	Surname	田中氏[Tanaka shi]
	殿 dono	Recipients of personal letters who are the sender's social inferiors; also used in public offices to address official members by their names or job titles	Surname	田中健太殿[Tanaka Kenta dono]
	殿 dono		Job Title	総理大臣殿[Sōridaijin dono]
Casual (friendly)	くん / 君 kun	Friends, classmates, younger family members (mainly for boys; but can be used for girls too)	Surname	田中くん[Tanaka kun]
	くん / 君 kun		First Name	健太くん[Kenta kun]
	ちゃん chan	Friends, younger family members (mainly for girls, but can be used for young boys too). Some adult speakers use ちゃん with the last names to address peers or subordinates in casual settings.	First Name	洋子ちゃん[Yōko chan]

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