3.2 Honorific Prefixes お/ご, Counters, and Suffixes

3.2 Honorific Prefixes お/ご, Counters, and Suffixes

Quick Answer: Japanese politeness is built into the word itself via prefixes (お/ご), counters (個, 枚, 名, 部, 通), and suffixes (様, 御中). The BJT tests the smallest choices — お vs ご, 人 vs 名, 様 vs 御中 — and they appear in every listening script and email.

お — Honorific Prefix for 訓読み Nouns

お attaches to native-Japanese (訓読み) nouns to make them polite when referring to the listener's side:

お名前, お電話, お時間, お荷物, お忙しいところ, お休み, お席, お顔, お袖, お身体, お住まい, お着物, お気持ち.

ご — Honorific Prefix for 音読み Nouns

ご attaches to Sino-Japanese (音読み) nouns:

ご住所, ご連絡, ご家族, ご職業, ご意見, ご相談, ご案内, ご利用, ご確認, ご出席, ご挨拶, ご返事, ご注文, ご説明, ご理解, ご覧.

謙譲語 Prefixes on Humble Verbs — お/ご～する, お/ご～いたす

The same お/ご prefixes also mark humble (謙譲語) verbs in the forms お～する / ご～する and the more formal お～いたす / ご～いたす. The speaker lowers their own action to honor the listener:

• ご案内いたします (I will humbly guide you)
• お持ちいたします (I will humbly carry it)
• ご説明いたします (I will humbly explain)
• お伝えいたします (I will humbly convey it)

Trap: the prefix on a humble form must refer to the speaker's own action. Using お/ご～する to describe the listener's or a third party's action breaks keigo and is a frequent BJT email error. ×ご案内いたしますね (when the listener is the one guiding) → ○ご案内くださいね (request the listener's action with sonkeigo). The still-more-formal ご～申す (ご案内申します, ご報告申します) is reserved for the speaker's side only.

美化語 vs 尊敬語 vs 謙譲語 — Three Distinct Functions

A prefixed word is not automatically honorific. Distinguish three functions:

• 尊敬語 (sonkeigo) — お/ご on the listener's or superior's action or state, elevating them (ご連絡, お考えになる).
• 謙譲語 (kenjougo) — お/ご～する/いたす on the speaker's own action, lowering the speaker to honor the listener (ご連絡いたします).
• 美化語 (bikago) — お/ご on everyday nouns that sound refined without elevating anyone (お茶, お肉, お飯, ご飯, お金, お酒, お風呂).

You can say お茶をどうぞ without implying politeness toward the listener's tea; the お is decorative. The BJT will test whether you can detect this — a sentence built with 美化語 nouns is not necessarily polite in register, and swapping 美化語 for true honorific prefixes does not change who is being elevated.

Exceptions and Traps

• Fixed exceptions: お電話 is お even though 電話 is 音読み; お時間 (時間 is 音読み) — these are idiomatic and must be memorized.
• Mismatched prefixes are common BJT errors: ×お住所 → ○ご住所; ×ご名前 → ○お名前; ×ご電話 → ○お電話.
• Foreign-origin words generally do not take お/ご: ×おコーヒー, ×ごパソコン, ×おメール. A few have fossilized: おビール, おタバコ (older speakers).

Counters in Business Contexts

音便 — Sound-Change Euphony in Counter Readings

Counters whose first consonant is h undergo euphonic alternation (p/b) after 1, 6, 8, 10 (gemination + p) and after 3 (voicing to b). Master the h → p/b alternation explicitly:

The pattern is consistent: 1, 6, 8, 10 trigger 促音 (っ) + p on h-counters (本, 杯); 3 triggers 濁音 (b) on the same counters. Counters starting with s (冊, 世, 隻) geminate after 1, 6, 8, 10 (いっさつ, ろくさつ, はっさつ, じゅっさつ). Counters starting with ch (丁, 町) also geminate. Counters without h/s/ch onsets (枚, 人, 名, 日) generally read straight through except for 1 いち → いっ before s/p/t/k.

Time and Duration Counters — When the Suffix is Optional

The BJT loves the 時間 vs 時 distinction: 会議は3時間です (the meeting lasts 3 hours) vs 会議は3時です (the meeting starts at 3 o'clock). Dropping 間 changes the meaning entirely.

Number Pronunciation Traps: 4, 7, 9

The default-safe rule for counters is よん, なな, きゅう (よんほん, ななめい, きゅうまい) — these avoid homophones (death, seven=one, smell) and are acceptable in business prose. The pure readings し, しち, く dominate fixed words (4月 しがつ, 7時 しちじ, 9時 くじ).

Large Numbers — 万 / 億 / 兆 System

Japanese groups numbers in four-digit blocks. Master the ladder: 百 (10²) → 千 (10³) → 万 (10⁴) → 億 (10⁸) → 兆 (10¹²). Within each block, you read 百/千 in front of the unit.

Trap: 千 and 百 never take 一 (×一千, ×一百) but 万 and 億 do take 一 (一万, 一億). Within 万 the multiplier can be 1–9999.

Suffixes for Company Names

• 様 (sama) — addresses an individual person (a specific 社長, 部長, 担当者).
• 御中 (onchū) — addresses a department or organization as a whole (〇〇株式会社 御中, 〇〇株式会社 営業部 御中).
• 殿 (dono) — formal, often internal written, or to a recognized subordinate in formal documents. Outdated for external customers.
• 〇〇様方 (sama-kata) — used when forwarding mail c/o someone: 「山田 様方 田中 様」 means "Mr. Tanaka c/o Mr. Yamada." The 様方 marker follows the person whose address is used; the actual recipient gets 様.

The hard rule: never put 御中 after a personal name. 「〇〇株式会社 山田 御中」 is wrong; use 「山田 様」. Conversely, 「〇〇株式会社 営業部 様」 is wrong when the unit, not a person, is the addressee — use 御中. When both department and person are present, the person wins: 「〇〇株式会社 営業部 山田 様」.

Department-Only Addressing — Order Matters

When addressing a department inside a company, the order is company → department → 御中:

• ○ 「〇〇株式会社 営業部 御中」 (correct)
• × 「〇〇株式会社 御中 営業部」 (wrong — 御中 must close the address, not interrupt it)
• × 「〇〇株式会社 営業部 様」 (wrong — 様 is for a person, not a unit)

When a specific person is named, the order becomes company → department → name → 様: 「〇〇株式会社 営業部 山田 様」. Do not insert 御中 in front of a person's name; the named person is the final addressee and takes 様.

Five Counter/Prefix Traps BJT Loves

1. Prefix mismatch: 「ご名前」「お住所」 — both wrong. Test by checking 訓読み → お vs 音読み → ご, with お電話 / お時間 as memorized exceptions.
2. Counter register: a receptionist says 「本日は3人来社予定です」 — in a formal email she should write 「3名」. BJT marks the casual form as wrong when the speaker's role demands polite register.
3. 人 vs 名 vs 名様: 「お客様3名様」 doubles up; pick one — 「3名様」 is enough, 「3名」 is bare polite, 「3人」 is casual.
4. Humble prefix on the wrong actor: 「ご説明いたします」 is fine when the speaker explains, but 「ご説明いたしますね」 said to a customer who is the one explaining inverts the keigo direction. Use 「ご説明ください」 to honor the listener's action.
5. 時間 vs 時, 間 omission traps: dropping 間 in 「3時間」 produces 「3時」 (3 o'clock), changing duration to clock time. Similarly, 「3年」 alone is ambiguous (3 years or 3rd year); add 間 when the duration sense is required.