In Japanese, the prefixes お and ご are used to add a feeling of politeness or respect to a word. The usage of these two prefix is defined as follows:
- お : used for words with the 訓読み（”kunyomi”), or Japanese reading. It is sometimes written in Kanij as 御.
- ご : used for words with the 音読み (“onyomi”), or Chinese reading.
It would be great if it were that simple, but there are some tricky things about this pair which I’ll go over now.
For example, you can’t just arbitrary add these prefixes to any word, and some already have them ‘built in’. I’ll break it down into a few categories, with an example or two in each.
1. Words that work either with or without honorific prefixes
This is the simplest class where a word can be written normally, or with the appropriate honorific prefix for additional politeness.
- すし/ おすし
- しごと / おしごと
2. Words that change meaning when the honorific prefix is added
- なか（中）= Inside
- おなか (お腹）= stomach or abdomen
- にぎり = a type of sushi where a slice of raw fish is placed upon an elongated rice ball
- おにぎり = a rice ball, often triangular shaped, with nori on the outside and something inside (fish,
3. Words that change nuance when the prefix is added
- ゆ = hot water
- おゆ = hot water, but has a connotation of being more ‘clean’ and is probably water that is meant for drinking
- はな = can be mean nose (鼻) or flower (花）
- おはな = only used to mean flower
4. Words that typically use a honorific prefix but aren’t particularly polite or respectful
- お尻 = butt
- おなら = fart
You’ve probably noticed all of these examples used お, not ご. This is because these words are generally more frequent in Japanese, at least in my experience. One example of ご usage you’ll see commonly on online message boards is ご質問.
Actually, in some cases Japanese themselves can get confused whether ご or お should be used, and if you do a search in Japanese you’ll find several people asking on forums how to distinguish between these two. One case is お返事 vs ご返事. Technically speaking, ご返事 is correct since 返事 (へんじ） uses a chinese reading, but the word お返事 has become widely used. You can see this debate discussed here.
A related usage of お is to make a verb more polite. You can use the following pattern:
- お + [verb in pre-masu form] + します
Here is an example of it’s usage using the verb 手伝う (てつだう, “to help”).
- Shall I help?
One expression you’ll hear frequently on radio or podcasts is お送り[おおくり]します, which is used to mean “broadcast”.
As a general rule, don’t arbitrarily add these prefixes, only use them in cases where you’ve heard/seen a native use them. Using お or ご with a word where they are not typically used will sound unnatural, and in many cases it’s safe to just use the word without these.
(Featured image of nigiri taken from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salmon_nigiri.jpg)