Irregular Sonkeigo Verbs: The Special Respectful Verb Forms (いらっしゃる, 召し上がる, おっしゃる)

Irregular sonkeigo verbs are the closed set of special respectful verb forms that replace an everyday Japanese verb outright. They do not follow the productive お〜になる pattern. Examples include いらっしゃる (for いる, 行く, and 来る), 召し上がる (for 食べる and 飲む), and おっしゃる (for 言う).¹ Once you can use です/ます and the お〜になる form, this short list of suppletive verbs is the next thing to memorize. For several common verbs, the most respectful form is not built by rule.

Overview

Sonkeigo (尊敬語), respectful language, is one of three branches of keigo (敬語), Japanese honorific language. This article lists 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 regular お〜になる construction.

What sonkeigo is and who it elevates

The Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) defines sonkeigo as language that raises up (立てる) the addressee's side or a third party through that person's actions, things, or states.² In practical terms, sonkeigo elevates the subject: the actor whose action is being described.

To "raise up" (立てる) means to position the person high in words.² That covers genuine respect, situational deference, and plain social distance. The person raised may be the addressee, someone on the addressee's side, or a third party.²

The Agency illustrates this by swapping one verb. The sentence below carries the same information as a plain 行く version, but choosing いらっしゃる elevates 先生 (the teacher), the person performing the action.²

先生せんせいは来週らいしゅう海外かいがいへいらっしゃるんでしたね。²
"You were going overseas next week, weren't you, Professor?"

Sonkeigo sits beside two other branches that this article does not re-teach. Kenjōgo (謙譲語Ⅰ), humble language of the "伺う・申し上げる" type, raises the goal or recipient of one's own action.² Teineigo is the plain politeness of です and ます.

Sonkeigo never describes your own action

Because these verbs raise the subject by their meaning, they cannot describe what the speaker does. One's own action directed at a respected person takes kenjōgo, not sonkeigo.²

Why these verbs are irregular

The Agency for Cultural Affairs splits sonkeigo verb formation into two routes. The first is 特定形, dedicated lexical forms such as 行く becoming いらっしゃる. The second is 一般形, the productive お(ご)……になる pattern that turns 読む into お読みになる and 利用する into ご利用になる.¹

The 特定形 verbs override the productive pattern. They are a closed, high-frequency set covering verbs like be, come, go, eat, drink, say, do, and give.¹ Some everyday verbs cannot take お(ご)……になる by convention. In those cases, Japanese uses a suppletive form: 死ぬ has no お死にになる and uses お亡くなりになる instead.¹

The decision a learner makes for any given verb has two outcomes.

Master reference table

The respectful-verb table

The table below is the core of this article: a respectful-only lookup of the irregular sonkeigo verbs, with the plain verb each one replaces and the polite ます-form. The forms come from the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists of 特定形 and variant お〜になる shapes,¹ the Wikipedia irregular-respectful table,³ and Genki II Chapter 19,⁴ with per-form citations in the polite column.

Plain dictionary verb	Meaning	Irregular sonkeigo form	Polite (ます) form
いる / 行く / 来る	be (animate) / go / come	いらっしゃる13	いらっしゃいます54
食べる / 飲む	eat / drink	召し上がる13	召し上がります6
言う	say	おっしゃる13	おっしゃいます78
見る	see / look / watch	ご覧になる13	ご覧になります9
する	do	なさる13	なさいます104
くれる	give (to me / in-group)	くださる（下さる）13	くださいます114
知る / 知っている	know	ご存じだ（ご存じです）13	ご存じです112
寝る	sleep	お休みになる13	お休みになります1
着る	wear / put on	お召しになる13	お召しになります1
死ぬ	die	お亡くなりになる13	お亡くなりになります1
行く / 来る / いる (variant)	go / come / be	おいでになる1	おいでになります1
来る (variant)	come	見える1	見えます1

The respectful verb いらっしゃいます is what a host or shopkeeper uses to ask where a guest has come from.

どちらからいらっしゃいましたか。⁸
"Where did you come from?"

The food-service verb 召し上がる refers to the listener's eating, never the speaker's.

アリスさん、もう召めし上あがりましたか。⁸
"Alice, have you already eaten?"

くださる is the respectful form of くれる, used when the respected person gives something to the speaker's side.

先生せんせいは私わたしに本ほんを下くださいました。¹¹
"My teacher gave me a book."

Notes on coverage

One form often covers several plain verbs. いらっしゃる serves as the sonkeigo of 行く, 来る, and いる. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that いらっしゃる is used as the respectful form of 来る and いる as well as 行く.² おいでになる is a documented variant for the same three verbs.¹

Three of the listed forms, ご覧になる, お休みになる, and お召しになる, are lexicalized お(ご)……になる shapes. The Agency files them under a separate "variant お(ご)……になる" category rather than the pure 特定形 list. Their stems are fixed, so learners still meet them as set vocabulary.¹

ご存じだ is not a verb conjugation. It is a noun used with the copula (だ or です), so it does not inflect like a verb.¹¹²

見える as a sonkeigo of 来る appears in the Agency's 特定形 list,¹ but it is less common than いらっしゃる. It also overlaps with the everyday verb 見える ("be visible"), so it stays a coverage entry rather than a headline form.

The humble counterparts are out of scope

The kenjōgo mirror set (伺う, 参る, 申す, いたす, 拝見する, いただく, and so on) is deliberately excluded here. This article covers respectful forms only. The humble list is its own closed set.

Conjugation quirks

The る to い shift before ます

A small group of these verbs breaks the normal u-verb conjugation. In all ます-form tenses of these verbs, る becomes い instead of the り used by normal u-verbs.⁸ The verbs that do this are いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, なさる, 下さる, and ござる.⁸

The resulting forms are independently attested in Wiktionary, Genki II, and the Agency lists. The shift is a case of イ音便 (i-sound euphony). Wiktionary describes くださる's change as an irregular elision that turns kudasari into kudasai.¹¹

Dictionary form	Expected (wrong) ます-form	Actual ます-form
いらっしゃる	×いらっしゃります	いらっしゃいます54
おっしゃる	×おっしゃります	おっしゃいます7
なさる	×なさります	なさいます104
くださる	×くださります	くださいます114
ござる	×ござります	ございます11

The everyday いらっしゃいます asks where the listener is going.

今日きょうは、どちらへいらっしゃいますか。⁸
"Where are you going today?"

Te-form, imperative, and other inflections

The same い-euphony stem carries into the te-form. いらっしゃって, なさって, くださって, and おっしゃって all keep the い stem. They do not produce forms like いらっしゃりて.⁵⁸

The imperative and request forms follow the same shape: いらっしゃい, なさい, and ください.⁵¹⁰¹¹ These surface in fixed service expressions such as いらっしゃいませ, なさいませ, and くださいませ.⁸

いらっしゃいませ。⁸
"Welcome." (standard greeting on entering a shop)

なさる, as the sonkeigo of する, also attaches to suru-nouns. The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives 利用する becoming 利用なさる, and also the ご-prefixed ご利用なさる. It notes that the ……なさる form applies only to suru-verbs.¹

くださる adds a benefactive nuance on top of plain respect. In its supplementary note, the Agency states that くださる does more than raise the actor: it also shows that the actor gives a benefit. The note illustrates this with 先生が指導してくださる and 先生がご指導くださる.¹³

推薦状すいせんじょうを書かいてくださるんですか。⁸
"You'll write me a recommendation letter?"

召し上がる, ご覧になる, ご存じ behave regularly

Not every irregular sonkeigo verb takes the る→い shift. Over-applying it is a common error. Three high-frequency forms conjugate normally.

召し上がる is a regular godan verb: 召し上がります, past 召し上がった, potential 召し上がれる.⁶¹ ご覧になる is a regular godan verb built on になる: ご覧になります, past ご覧になった, and negative ご覧にならない.⁹ ご存じ is not a verb at all and takes the copula, so ご存じです has no ます-shift to consider.¹¹²

Do not force the い-stem onto these three

These forms are not in the いらっしゃる / おっしゃる / なさる / くださる / ござる group, so the る→い rule does not apply to them. The respectful "see" is ご覧になります, never ×ご覧にないます.⁹

Nuance and usage contexts

Subject must be the respected person

By the Agency's definition, sonkeigo applies to the action of the addressee's side or a third party, never the speaker's own action.² The irregular form elevates the actor. In 先生は……いらっしゃる, the elevated actor is 先生.²

That constraint causes the most common beginner error, covered in the Good to know section: using one of these verbs for something you yourself did.

Register and frequency in real use

In service and hospitality, いらっしゃいませ is the standard shop greeting. 召し上がる appears throughout food service, as in 店内で召し上がりですか ("Are you dining in?").⁸ In business, おっしゃる and なさる are staples. おっしゃる anchors the set acknowledgement おっしゃる通り ("just as you say").⁷⁸

These sonkeigo verbs lean heavily on the polite ます-form in real use. The bare dictionary form mostly appears inside relative clauses or with の / んです nominalization, as in いらっしゃるんでしたね.²⁵

でも一体いったい、何時なんじごろあなた方がたはこちらへいらっしゃるのかしら？⁵
"But really, around what time would you all be coming here, I wonder?"

Pairing with the humble mirror

In conversation, sonkeigo for the listener's or a third party's actions pairs with kenjōgo for one's own actions toward that person. The Agency defines 謙譲語Ⅰ, humble language of the "伺う・申し上げる" type, as raising the goal of one's own action.²

This is only a concept-level pairing. The dedicated humble counterparts (伺う, 参る, 申す, いたす, 拝見する, いただく, 差し上げる, 存じる) form a separate closed set that is not taught here.

Good to know

Using a sonkeigo verb for your own action

Saying 私が召し上がります for "I will eat" is wrong. Sonkeigo elevates the action of the addressee's side or a third party and cannot describe the speaker's own action.² For your own action toward a respected person, use kenjōgo. For a neutral statement, use the plain verb.

私わたしがいただきます。²
"I will eat." (humble; or plainly 私が食べます)

Stacking two honorifics (二重敬語)

Forms like おっしゃられる or お読みになられる pile a second honorific onto a word that is already respectful. The Agency for Cultural Affairs defines 二重敬語 as stacking two honorifics of the same kind on one word. An example is お読みになる plus the sonkeigo ……れる. The Agency states that this is generally regarded as inappropriate.¹⁴

The correct forms are simply おっしゃる and お読みになる. A few stacked forms have become fixed exceptions, such as お召し上がりになる and お見えになる.¹⁴

The plain sonkeigo forms outside fixed frames

Bare dictionary forms such as いらっしゃる and なさる are mostly confined to embedded clauses and の / んです nominalizations in real speech.²⁵ Outside those frames, the ます-forms dominate. Producing a bare-form sonkeigo sentence in ordinary conversation can sound stilted.

Why these shapes exist

召し上がる layers two honorific verbs: 召す ("take" or "eat," honorific) and 上がる ("rise," used honorifically).⁶ いらっしゃる derives from いらせらる. That older form is built on 入る ("enter" or "go in") plus an honorific せ and the classical passive-honorific らる.⁵

なさる comes from 成す ("do") plus a classical る that irregularly settled into godan conjugation.¹⁰ くださる began as the passive or potential of 下す ("lower"). The "being lowered to me" sense yielded its gift-from-above nuance, attested in the honorific sense from 1693.¹¹

A mnemonic for the five る→い verbs

The closed set that swaps る→い before ます is いらっしゃる, おっしゃる, なさる, くださる, and ござる.⁸ The hook is that all five end in ……る, all reject ×……ります, and all bend to ……います like the everyday ございます that every learner already knows. Anchor the unfamiliar four to the familiar ございます to fix the pattern.

See also

• Sonkeigo (尊敬語): Respectful Language for Elevating Others
• How to Choose the Right Keigo Level: A Practical Guide
• Bikago (美化語): The お and ご Beautification Prefix in Japanese
• Asymmetric Keigo: Humbling Your Own Boss (Uchi-Soto)
• The Japanese Verb Stem (連用形): The Masu-Stem and Its Uses
• The Te-Form in Japanese: Uses (Linking, Cause, Light Imperative, Continuation)

References

Footnotes

1. 文化審議会（文化庁）. 「敬語の指針」（答申）, 2007年. Same PDF, pp. 24–25 (尊敬語の特定形・一般形の一覧, 【ア－２：変則的な「お(ご)……になる」】, 【ア－３】). ↩ ↩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

2. 文化審議会（文化庁）. 「敬語の指針」（答申）, 2007年（平成19年2月2日）. https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/bunkashingikai/kokugo/hokoku/pdf/keigo_tosin.pdf: pdftotext extract, "第2章 敬語の仕組み" pp. 13–14 (尊敬語の定義・該当語例). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

3. "Honorific speech in Japanese." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese: "Irregular respectful verb forms" table. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. "Honorific Verbs (keigo): Genki II Chapter 19." St. Olaf College Japanese grammar index. https://wp.stolaf.edu/japanese/grammar-index/genki-i-ii-grammar-index/honorific-verbs-keigo-genki-ii-chapter-19/: textbook-aligned honorific verb table and ます-forms (いらっしゃいます, おっしゃいます, なさいます, くださいます). (Genki II, The Japan Times / Kurosio, Ch. 19.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. "いらっしゃる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/いらっしゃる: etymology, conjugation (ます-form いらっしゃいます, te-form いらっしゃって, imperative いらっしゃい), usage notes, quotations. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

6. "召し上がる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/召し上がる: etymology (召す + 上がる), honorific of 食べる/飲む, godan conjugation. ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. "おっしゃる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/おっしゃる: etymology (< 仰せある), honorific of 言う, continuative おっしゃい/おっしゃり. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. Kim, Tae. "Honorific and Humble Forms." Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese. https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/honorific: verbatim example sentences; statement of the る→い (actually -ru → -i) ます-conjugation rule and the five exception verbs. (limitation: independent learner site, source-quality tier 5.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

9. "ご覧になる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ご覧になる: honorific of 見る, regular godan conjugation (ご覧になります), structure ご覧 + になる. ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. "なさる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/なさる: etymology (成す + classical る), honorific of する, ます-form なさいます, imperative なさい. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

11. "下さる." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/下さる: etymology (< 下す passive/potential), honorific of くれる, ます-form くださいます, imperative ください, イ音便 note, attested honorific sense 1693. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

12. "ご存じ." Wiktionary (English). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ご存じ: honorific of 知る/知っている, noun used with copula だ/です, etymology (存じ < 存ずる), spellings 御存じ/御存知. ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. 文化審議会（文化庁）. 「敬語の指針」（答申）, 2007年. Same PDF, p. 14 (【補足：「くださる」】の解説). ↩

14. 文化審議会（文化庁）. 「敬語の指針」（答申）, 2007年. Same PDF, p. 30 (二重敬語の定義・例, 敬語連結の定義・例). ↩ ↩²