Page 465 - Basic Japanese

possessions, or to someone else of equal social status, or to

yourself, it is treated as a general honorific.

The exalted expression is made by using the gerund (-
kute) form of the adjective, with the honorific prefix o-,

followed by some form of the exalted verb irassharu ‘stays,
exists’:

O-isogashikute irasshaimasu.
You are busy.

Similarly, adjectival nouns can be preceded by o and

followed by de and irassharu.

Yamada-san wa itsu mo o-kirei de irasshaimasu ne.
Ms. Yamada is always pretty.

9.13. Formation of the adjective honorific
infinitive

If we include the vowel that appears before the imperfect
ending -i, Japanese adjectives are of four types: -ii, -ai, -oi,

and -ui (ōkii, akai, aoi, warui). To produce the honorific infinitive
form, we have to change not only the ending, but also the

vowel before the ending, as follows:

Imperfect Honorific Neutral
Infinitive
Infinitive

-ii -yū -iku