Japanese Honorifics Quiz | Double Honorifics, Potential Forms, and Customer Service Language, Standard Set 2
Problem 1
Which expression is formally a double honorific but is listed in the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Guidelines for Honorific Language as acceptable because it has become established through customary use?
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「お召し上がりになる」 combines the honorific verb 「召し上がる」 with 「お〜になる」, but it is accepted as a double honorific established by convention. 「お読みになられる」 adds the respectful 「れる」 to 「お読みになる」, while 「おっしゃられる」 adds it to 「おっしゃる」; these are generally inappropriate double honorifics. The decision therefore depends not only on whether honorific forms overlap, but also on whether the particular expression is an established exception.
Problem 2
Which explanation of 「先生はその論文をお読みになっていらっしゃる」 is most accurate?
View explanation
In 「お読みになっていらっしゃる」, the two verbs in 「読んでいる」 are honorified separately: 「読む」 becomes 「お読みになる」 and 「いる」 becomes 「いらっしゃる」. This is honorific linking, not a double honorific applied to a single word. Because each honorific is used appropriately and their meanings are compatible, the combination is generally acceptable. 「いらっしゃる」 can serve as the respectful form of 「いる」 as well as express coming or going.
Problem 3
A student tells a friend that the student's respected former teacher visited the student's home. Which expression honors the teacher without directing deference toward the wrong person?
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The teacher performed the visit, so 「来てくださる」 appropriately honors the teacher's action. 「伺う」 is humble language type I that elevates the destination of a visit. Saying that the teacher 「私の家に伺う」 would lower the teacher's action while elevating the speaker's home, creating an illogical direction of deference. 「参る」 is humble language type II for speaking courteously about an action by oneself or one's own side, so it is not used for the teacher's visit.
Problem 4
Convert both “a customer reads a document” and “a customer uses a service” into the respectful 「お（ご）〜になる」 pattern. Which pair follows the general prefix rule?
View explanation
As a general rule, 「お」 is used with native Japanese words and 「ご」 with Sino-Japanese words. 「読む」 is native Japanese, so it becomes 「お読みになる」. 「利用する」 is a Sino-Japanese verbal noun plus 「する」, so it becomes 「ご利用になる」. Established exceptions such as 「お料理」 and 「お元気」 exist, but these two verbs follow the general rule.
Problem 5
A store clerk asks a customer whether the customer regularly uses the store's delivery service. Under the normative guidance presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which expression is most appropriate?
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Because the customer performs the act of using the service, the respectful form 「ご利用になる」 is normatively appropriate. 「ご利用する」 and 「ご利用いたす」 are humble forms used for an action by one's own side directed toward another person, so they do not fit the customer's action. 「ご利用される」 is found in actual usage, but because it can be analyzed as the humble 「ご利用する」 plus the respectful 「れる」, normative guidance recommends forms such as 「ご利用になる」.
Problem 6
A station employee tells a passenger that the passenger cannot board a reserved-seat car with this ticket. Which sentence expresses the passenger's action with the potential form of respectful language?
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The passenger, the addressee, performs the act of boarding. The respectful form 「ご乗車になる」 is therefore converted to its potential form 「ご乗車になれる」 and then negated as 「ご乗車になれません」. 「ご乗車できる」 is interpreted as the potential of the humble type-I form 「ご乗車する」 and does not honor the addressee's action. The separately structured 「ご乗車はできません」 and the benefit-framed 「ご乗車いただけません」 can also be appropriate, but neither appears among the choices.
Problem 7
An employee tells a customer that the employee can explain the product specifications in detail tomorrow. Which sentence appropriately uses humble language type I to express the possibility of an action from the employee toward the customer?
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「ご説明できる」 is the potential form of the humble type-I expression 「ご説明する」. The employee is the actor and the explanation is directed toward the customer, so 「私がご説明できます」 is appropriate. 「ご説明になれる」 is the potential form of respectful language for an action by the other party; using it with oneself as the subject would elevate oneself. The choice that makes the customer the person explaining changes the stated situation itself.
Problem 8
A staff member tells a manager that a new guide is structured so that users will find it easy to read. Which expression honors the users' act of reading?
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「読みやすい」 consists of the verb 「読む」 and the adjective-forming element 「やすい」. Only the verb is made respectful as 「お読みになる」, after which 「やすい」 is attached, producing 「お読みになりやすい」. 「お読みやすい」 merely adds a prefix without completing the respectful verbal pattern, and 「ご読み」 also violates the general selection of 「お」 for this native Japanese verb.
Problem 9
A restaurant server checks whether every item ordered by a customer has been served. Which expression avoids unnecessarily making the inanimate dishes the subject of respectful language?
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「ご注文の品は、以上でよろしいでしょうか」 remains courteous to the customer while avoiding a respectful predicate that elevates the dishes themselves. 「おそろいになる」 has the respectful 「お〜になる」 structure, so in this sentence it inappropriately treats the inanimate ordered items as the entity being honored. 「おそろいになられる」 adds yet another respectful form.
Problem 10
An employee at a car-rental company asks whether the customer will personally drive to the destination. Which respectful expression conforms to established usage for 「運転する」?
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By established usage, 「運転する」 does not combine naturally with 「お（ご）」 to form 「お（ご）〜になる」. The respectful form should therefore be 「運転なさる」 or 「運転される」, not 「ご運転になる」 or 「お運転になる」. 「運転いたす」 is a humble form used to speak courteously about an action by oneself or one's own side, so it does not fit a question about the customer's action.