Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
お~する

お~する

お~する Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Phrase

Essential Meaning: Humbly describes one’s actions

Construction: 

  • Verb ます-Stem + する
    • E.g. お持もちする [To carry]
    • E.g. お届とどけする [To deliver]

Notes:

  • お~する is the inverse of お~になる. Rather than allowing one to speak honorifically of someone else’s action, お~する allows one to speak humbly of one’s own actions (or the actions of someone in one’s in-group). These actions generally involve some kind of favor.
    • E.g. A salesman to a customer: サンプルは明日あしたうちのセールスマンがお届とどけします。[One of our salesmen will deliver the sample to you tomorrow.]
  • お~する is only used when the speaker’s action actually involves a person to whom the speaker wants to be polite.
    • E.g. *私わたしがお歩あるきします。[I’m humbly going for a walk.] This example is strange because there is nobody for the speaker to be polite to.
  • Keep in mind that certain verbs have their own special humble forms. For example, the humble form of する is いたす. する verbs can take the form お~いたす.
    • E.g. 上村うえむらさんをご紹介しょうかいいたします。[I will introduce Uemuru-san.]
    • E.g. 明日あしたお電話でんわいたします。[I will call you tomorrow.]

Example Sentences:

私わたしは先生せんせいのスーツケースをお持もちした。[I carried my teacher’s suitcase.]

そのことは私わたしがお話はなししましょう。[I will tell you about that.]

山村やまむらくんは先生せんせいに本ほんをお借かりした。[Yamamura-kun borrowed a book from his teacher.]

WILD Examples:

Listen to this line from 0:58: 響ひびかすYOUにお届とどけする、We are all GReeeeN! [We’re reverberating and delivering it to you, We are all GReeeeN!] GReeeeN is the name of the group.
Listen to this line at 2:38: 紅茶こうちゃとスイーツをお持もちしますね [I’ll go ahead and bring tea and sweets]

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