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. お持ちする [To carry]
- E.g. お届けする [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: サンプルは明日うちのセールスマンがお届けします。[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. *私がお歩きします。[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. 上村さんをご紹介いたします。[I will introduce Uemuru-san.]
- E.g. 明日お電話いたします。[I will call you tomorrow.]
Example Sentences:
私は先生のスーツケースをお持ちした。[I carried my teacher’s suitcase.]
そのことは私がお話ししましょう。[I will tell you about that.]
山村くんは先生に本をお借りした。[Yamamura-kun borrowed a book from his teacher.]
WILD Examples:
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