How politeness works: plain, polite and keigo
Japanese has three levels: plain for family and friends, です/ます for everyone else, and keigo, the extra-polite Japanese of shops, stations, offices and school letters. This course is mostly about understanding keigo when you hear it and using just enough yourself. It starts with the everyday words that change. Tap to hear any line. The bar at the bottom plays a hands-free drill for walking.
24 polite words you'll hear
Each card shows the everyday word, its polite version and a line from a shop, an office or the phone. A few are for you to use; most you just need to recognise. Eight cards reuse words from earlier courses.
Three levels of politeness
Same meaning, three levels. You need the first two to speak. The third is what staff say to you, so you mostly need to understand it.
| Plain (family) | Polite | Keigo (staff) |
|---|
- Answer in です/ます. Nobody expects keigo back from a customer. is a perfectly polite answer.
- Two kinds of keigo. Honorific lifts the other person (いらっしゃる, Lesson 2). Humble lowers yourself (, Lesson 3). Staff use both.
- になります at the till. just means "that's 1,100 yen". Nothing is becoming anything.
Four patterns to use today
Say it in Japanese
Say each one out loud before you reveal the answer. Getting close counts.