Japanese keigo: honorific, humble & polite words

Keigo (敬語) is Japanese respect language, and it comes in three layers: sonkeigo (尊敬語) elevates the other person's actions, kenjōgo (謙譲語) humbly lowers your own, and teineigo (丁寧語) is the general polite register of です and ます.

The hard part is that the most common verbs don't just take polite endings — they get replaced entirely. "To eat" becomes 召し上がる when your customer does it and いただく when you do; "to say" splits into おっしゃる and 申し上げる. There's no rule that derives these — they're vocabulary, and this page collects all of it: every word tagged honorific, humble, or polite in the dictionary.

Start with the dozen replacements below — they cover most of the keigo you'll hear in shops, offices, and train announcements on day one in Japan.