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Grammar detail: being more polite than ください
My current mastery of this grammar:
The typical form
〜てください
used to ask someone to do something is 'casually polite'. ください is roughly equivalent to the English 'please', so by including it, any sentence is already reasonably polite.The word ください can be made more polite in several ways. One option is to replace てください with
てくださいませんか
. This is a direct substitute, which would be too polite for family, colleagues etc, but would be appropriate when addressing eg a teacher or someone senior.Another alternative would be to use the construction
ていただけませんか
. This may *not* be a direct substitute depending on the sentence, as the (implied) subject of the sentence is the speaker (where for ください the implied subject is the listener).Yet another alternative, politest of the options here, would be to use the construction (literally,
I humbly entreat you to ~
).However, in addition to changing the form of 'please', to make the sentence consistent, it would also be necessary to improve the politeness level of what is being asked for. For example, the following are all variations of 'please don't use it':
- (casually polite)つかわないで下さい
- お(the honorific verb phrase makes this polite in informal situations)つかいにならないでください
- (use of the term 使用する is more formal than 使う)
See also:
- verb て form + ください - please (do, go, open, etc)
- verb て form + いただけませんか - will you please do
- くださる、くださいます、くださいません
More information / references:
- http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/34448/polite-form-of-つかわないで-ください ⇗
- http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14011/くださいませんか-vs-いただけませんか ⇗
Kanji used in this grammar
ジョウ ショウ うえ above うわ- above あげる to raise あがる to rise かみ first half, upper part のぼる to climb のぼせる to bring up, to raise のぼす to bring up
カ ゲ した below, under しも bottom part もと under (influence) さげる to lower, to reduce さがる to be lowered くだる to descend くだす to judge くださる to give おろす to drop off (passenger) おりる to get off (train)
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