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Irregular Kenjōgo Verbs: The Special Humble Verb Forms (伺う, 参る, 申す, いたす)

Irregular kenjōgo verbs are a closed set of special humble verb forms. They replace an everyday Japanese verb outright instead of following the productive お＋V-stem＋する rule. The set includes 伺う (for 訪ねる, 尋ねる, and 聞く), 参る (for 行く and 来る), 申す (for 言う), and いたす (for する).1 Once you can build the regular お〜する humble form, this short list of replacement verbs is the next thing to master. The 2007 government reform that defines them splits the set along an axis most English resources never mention.

Overview​

Kenjōgo (謙譲語) is the humble branch of keigo (敬語), Japanese honorific language. This article is a reference list of the verbs in that branch that behave irregularly. It is pitched at JLPT N3 for learners who already know teineigo (です/ます) and the productive お〜する construction.

What kenjogo is and whose status it lowers​

The Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) defines humble language as describing an action by the speaker's own side and lowering it to elevate the other party.1 Where sonkeigo raises the addressee's own action, kenjōgo lowers the speaker's action so that someone else stands higher by contrast.1

The split runs deeper than that. Humble language I (謙譲語Ⅰ) describes an action by the speaker's side that is directed toward the other party or a third party. It raises (立てる) that destination person.1 To "raise" a person means to position them highly in words.1

Humble language II (謙譲語Ⅱ／丁重語) describes the speaker's own actions courteously to the listener or reader, with no specific person being raised.1 English-language descriptions draw the same line: humble speech may either raise the recipient of an action or, where there is no specific recipient, simply lower the speaker with respect to the listener.2

The whole set is formal register

Every verb listed here belongs to formal and business speech. The 謙譲語Ⅱ set in particular is generally used with ます and rarely appears bare.1

Why these verbs are irregular​

The Agency for Cultural Affairs splits humble verb formation into two routes. The first is the 特定形, dedicated lexical forms such as 訪ねる becoming 伺う. The second is the productive 一般形, the お(ご)……する pattern that can be applied by rule.1

The 特定形 verbs override the productive pattern. Instead of wrapping a verb in お…する, they swap in an entirely different word. This is the same suppletive, or replacement, strategy that produces the irregular respectful verbs on the sonkeigo side.2 伺う, for example, is itself a regular godan verb meaning to ask about, to hear, or to call on.3

These replacement forms are the exception list to the productive rule. A learner who knows the お〜する pattern still needs this closed set because the most courteous way to say these common verbs is not built by rule.

The 謙譲語I vs 謙譲語II split (the key axis)​

In 2007 (平成19年), the 文化審議会 report subdivided the traditional three keigo categories into five: 尊敬語, 謙譲語Ⅰ, 謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）, 丁寧語, and 美化語.1 The year matters: this five-category scheme dates to that 答申, and the rest of this article uses that framing.

The reform's central move was to break the old single 謙譲語 into two groups, 謙譲語Ⅰ and 謙譲語Ⅱ.1 It assigned the two flagship verbs to opposite sides: 伺う became 謙譲語Ⅰ and 参る became 謙譲語Ⅱ, though tradition had lumped them together.1

The report lists 伺う, 申し上げる, お目に掛かる, 差し上げる, お届けする, and 御案内する under 謙譲語Ⅰ.1 It lists 参る, 申す, いたす, おる, 拙著, and 小社 under 謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）.1 In one line: 謙譲語Ⅰ is honorific language toward the destination of an action, while 謙譲語Ⅱ is honorific language toward the listener. The two are different in nature.1

That single question, whether the action has a target person to raise, decides which group a verb belongs to.

Master reference table​

The humble-verb table​

The table below is the core of this article: a humble-only lookup of the irregular kenjōgo verbs. It gives the plain verb each one replaces, its reading, and its 謙譲語Ⅰ or 謙譲語Ⅱ category. The verb-to-plain mappings and category labels come from the 2007 文化審議会 report's 該当語例 and 特定形 lists,1 with support from the Wikibooks plain→humble table4 and the Genki II extra-modest-expressions set indexed by St. Olaf College.5 Readings are standard dictionary readings.

Plain verbHumble (kenjōgo) verbReadingCategoryGloss
行く・来る参るまいる謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）go / come
言う申すもうす謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）say
言う (directed at a person)申し上げるもうしあげる謙譲語Ⅰsay / tell (to someone raised)
するいたすいたす謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）do
いるおるおる謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）be / exist
知る・思う存じるぞんじる謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）know / think (a fact)
知る (a person)存じ上げるぞんじあげる謙譲語Ⅰknow (a person)
訪ねる・尋ねる・聞く伺ううかがう謙譲語Ⅰvisit / ask / hear
見る拝見するはいけんする謙譲語Ⅰsee / look at
もらういただくいただく謙譲語Ⅰreceive
食べる・飲むいただくいただく謙譲語Ⅰeat / drink
あげる差し上げるさしあげる謙譲語Ⅰgive
会うお目にかかるおめにかかる謙譲語Ⅰmeet

A 謙譲語Ⅰ verb in everyday use, 拝見する asks to see something belonging to the listener.

切符きっぷを拝見はいけんいたします。6
"Let me see your ticket."

The 謙譲語Ⅰ giving verb 差し上げる offers something to a respected recipient.

これは差さし上あげます。6
"This is for you."

お目にかかる is the humble verb for meeting a respected person.

お目めにかかれて光栄こうえいです。6
"I am honored to meet you."

Notes on coverage​

One humble verb often covers several plain verbs. 参る serves as the humble form of 来る as well as 行く.1 いただく doubles as the humble form of もらう and of 食べる・飲む.54 伺う covers 訪ねる, 尋ねる, and 聞く alike.1

Two pairs differ only by whether an addressee is raised. 申す is 謙譲語Ⅱ, while 申し上げる is the 謙譲語Ⅰ form of 言う. The report files them in the two separate 該当語例 lists.1 Likewise, 存じる is the 謙譲語Ⅱ form for knowing a fact, while 存じ上げる is the 謙譲語Ⅰ form for knowing a person.1

ご存じだ is sonkeigo, not humble

Despite sharing the 存じ stem, ご存じだ（ご存じです）is the respectful form of 知る, used about the listener's knowledge, not your own.1 Keep it out of the humble set.

Conjugation quirks​

These are otherwise regular godan/ichidan verbs​

Unlike the sonkeigo set, where いらっしゃる and four related verbs swap る→い before ます, the irregular humble verbs conjugate normally. 伺う is a regular godan verb,3 and by the same morphology 参る, 申す, and おる are godan as well.

拝見する and いたす follow the する pattern. The report gives the 謙譲語Ⅱ 一般形 as ……いたす (利用する → 利用いたす). It applies only to サ変 verbs, those built on する.1 Other forms are built normally on top: the report notes that 参る becomes 参れる when a potential sense is needed.1

明日あしたもう一度いちど参まいります。6
"I'll come here again tomorrow."

The polite (-masu) and te-forms in real use​

The 謙譲語Ⅱ verbs almost always take ます. The report states that the group is generally used with ます, and that saying a bare 明日先生のところに参る(よ) is unnatural.1 By contrast, 謙譲語Ⅰ can drop ます: 明日先生のところに伺う(よ) is fine when said to someone other than the teacher.1

The polite ます forms 参ります, 申します, おります, いたします, and 伺います dominate actual usage. Te-forms such as 伺って can then chain into おる for the humble progressive.

ご用件ようけんは伺うかがっておりますか？6
"Are you being waited on?"

おる as the humble copula auxiliary​

おる is the 謙譲語Ⅱ form of いる.1 As an auxiliary, it replaces いる in the progressive and state construction. That means ～ている becomes ～ております in humble register.5 This form is common in business speech.

お待まちしております。6
"We look forward to (meeting) you."

The same おる-auxiliary anchors the standard apology for a lapse in contact.

ご無沙汰ぶさたしております。6
"Long time no see."

Nuance and usage contexts​

謙譲語I requires a person to elevate; 謙譲語II does not​

The decisive test comes from the report. With 謙譲語Ⅰ, 先生のところに伺います is fine, but 弟のところに伺います is unnatural. The reason is that 謙譲語Ⅰ is honorific language toward the destination and applies only when that destination is a person worth raising.1

謙譲語Ⅱ carries no such requirement. Both 先生のところに参ります and 弟のところに参ります are fine, because 謙譲語Ⅱ works whether or not there is a suitable person to raise.1 It even extends to third parties, objects, and the weather: a bus arriving or the night growing late can take 参る.1

あ、バスが参まいりました。1
"Ah, the bus has come."

伺う vs 参る, 申す vs 申し上げる​

The government Q&A presents the classic contrast directly. Visiting your former teacher, a person worth raising, licenses the 謙譲語Ⅰ verb 伺う.

明日あした、小学校しょうがっこうのときの担任たんにんの田中たなか先生せんせいのところに伺うかがいます。7
"Tomorrow I am going to visit Mr. Tanaka, my old homeroom teacher from elementary school."

The same sentence with 参る is also correct, but it shifts the honorific away from the teacher and toward the listener. The teacher is no longer raised.

明日あした、小学校しょうがっこうのときの担任たんにんの田中たなか先生せんせいのところに参まいります。7
"Tomorrow I am going to my old homeroom teacher Mr. Tanaka's place."

The destination (＜向かう先＞) and the listener (＜相手＞) can be different. When the listener is not the teacher, the 参る version works as honorific language toward that listener instead.1 The same axis decides 申す against 申し上げる: a directed message to a raised recipient takes 申し上げる.

心こころより感謝かんしゃ申もうし上あげます。6
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Humbling your own group (uchi-soto)​

The report includes one's own family in the speaker's side (自分側): not just oneself, but anyone recognized as ウチ, an in-group member.1 The basic principle is that you do not raise your own side, so sonkeigo and 謙譲語Ⅰ are off-limits for in-group members.1

The dedicated 謙譲語Ⅱ form fills the gap. When speaking about your own side to an outsider, the courteous move is to use 謙譲語Ⅱ, as in 父は来週海外へ参ります for your own father's travel.1 English-language descriptions match this: the speaker's viewpoint extends to the in-group, so in-group referents do not take honorifics.2

息子むすこは明日あしたから海外かいがいに参まいります。1
"My son is going abroad from tomorrow."

Register and frequency​

申します is the standard self-introduction at a first formal meeting, the form used in job interviews and business greetings. Genki classes 申す, 参る, おる, and いたす as the very-formal extra-modest set used when speaking modestly of one's own family or company.5

鈴木すずきと申もうします。6
"My name is Suzuki."

In courtesy, 謙譲語Ⅱ ranks above plain 丁寧語: the report calls it more formal and courteous than です／ます, on par with (で)ございます.1 Because the whole set is formal and weighty, overusing it in ordinary talk sounds stiff.

Good to know​

いただく does triple duty​

いただく covers three plain verbs: もらう (receive) and 食べる・飲む (eat and drink).54 At a meal, いただきます means "I humbly receive this food."6 Context usually shows which sense is meant, since the receiving and eating readings rarely compete in the same sentence.

As a 謙譲語Ⅰ verb, it also carries a received-benefit nuance on top of plain humility. The report notes that 先生に指導していただく and 先生に御指導いただく both express that the guidance is something to be grateful for.1

存じる vs 存じ上げる​

Knowing a fact and knowing a person take different verbs. 存じる handles 知る and 思う about things and is 謙譲語Ⅱ. It appears as 存じております for "I know."1 存じ上げる raises a person you know and is 謙譲語Ⅰ.1

The licensing rule follows the same axis as everywhere else: 存じ上げる is available only when there is a person to raise. For a mere fact, use 存じる.1

お兄様にいさまのことはよく存ぞんじ上あげております。6
"I know your older brother well."

Do not attach お／ご or stack with the productive rule​

A common temptation is to wrap an already-humble verb in the お…する pattern again, producing お伺いする. The verb 伺う is already humble, so this is technically 二重敬語 (double keigo). The report classifies お伺いする, お伺いいたす, and お伺い申し上げる as double keigo that survives only because custom has lexicalized it.1

Treat お伺いする as a tolerated exception, not a model to generalize. Do not extend the お…する rule onto other irregular humble verbs; the plain special verb already carries the humility.1

明日あしたお宅たくに伺うかがいます。6
"I will visit you at your house tomorrow."

Why these shapes exist​

The 拝-prefixed humble verbs form a small sub-class. 拝 means "to bow." The report notes that 拝顔 and 拝眉 join 拝見 and 拝聴 as 拝-prefixed 謙譲語Ⅰ verbs.1 拝見 is glossed as a humble word for seeing, "to view reverently."8

That bowing image is the throughline for the 拝 verbs: each one frames the speaker's act of seeing, hearing, or borrowing as something done with lowered head.

A mnemonic for the 謙譲語II/丁重語 five​

The "self-lowering, no target needed" five are 参る, 申す, いたす, おる, and 存じる. These are exactly the verbs the report lists as 謙譲語Ⅱ 該当語例 and 特定形.1 All five lower the speaker toward the listener without needing a person to raise, and all five tend to use ます. Memorize them as the group that answers "no" to the target-person question.

See also​

References​

Footnotes​

  1. 文化審議会. 『敬語の指針』(答申). 文化庁, 平成19年 (2007), pp. 13–19, 24, 26–28, 38–39. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/sokai/sokai_6/pdf/keigo_tousin.pdf (PDF, pdftotext UTF-8 extract). The 2007 文化審議会 report that defines the five-category system and the 謙譲語Ⅰ / 謙譲語Ⅱ（丁重語）split with these exact verbs. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26 ↩27 ↩28 ↩29 ↩30 ↩31 ↩32 ↩33 ↩34 ↩35 ↩36 ↩37 ↩38 ↩39 ↩40 ↩41 ↩42 ↩43

  2. Honorific speech in Japanese. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese (uchi-soto framing; suppletive-form framing). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Wiktionary contributors. "伺う" and "拝見". en.wiktionary.org. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/伺う , https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/拝見 (part-of-speech and gloss reference data). ↩ ↩2

  4. Japanese/Grammar/Honorifics. Wikibooks. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Grammar/Honorifics (plain → kenjōgo mapping table). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Banno, Eri, et al. Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese, 2nd ed., The Japan Times. "Extra-modest expressions" (humble verb set 参る/おる/いたす/申す/いただく/ございる), as indexed by the St. Olaf College Japanese program grammar index. https://wp.stolaf.edu/japanese/grammar-index/genki-i-ii-grammar-index/extra-modest-expressions-genki-ii-chapter-20/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. Tatoeba Project (CC-BY 2.0 FR). Japanese–English sentence corpus. https://tatoeba.org/. Individual sentence IDs cited inline per example. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  7. 文化庁. 「敬語おもしろ相談室」第六話「間違いやすい敬語（3）～謙譲語I VS 謙譲語II」. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/kokugo_nihongo/kokugo_shisaku/keigo/chapter6/index.html and .../chapter6/detail.html ↩ ↩2

  8. 小学館『デジタル大辞泉』, s.v.「拝見」: "見ることをへりくだっていう語。謹んで見ること。" (definition reference data). ↩