Name-Ender Honorifics
“Name is a fence and within it you are nameless.” - Samuli Paronen
Up to now, you’ve learned different ways to say “I” and different ways to say “you.” You’ve also learned that depending on the word, there can be different levels of politeness or casualness associated with it. There’s one more thing like that you should learn about right now, and this time the entire list is pretty useful. We’re going to learn about the “name-enders” you see in Japanese (like the さん at the end of Boboさん, for example).
First, let’s take a look at all of them, one by one.
〜さん
This is the standard “name-ender.” You pretty much can’t go wrong with this one. If you’re not sure, use さん.
examples: こういちさん、Boboさん、ひろゆきさん
〜くん（君）
This name-ender is mostly used on younger men (even younger adults). When you’re an equal with someone, or higher rank than someone (this could be age, position, etc), and you’re talking to a guy, くん is a viable option. Then again, if you’re meeting someone for the first time or you don’t know someone very well, it’s always safer to stick with さん, even if you are older / higher ranking than someone. You’ll also see くん being thrown around to kids and boyfriends, too (because girlfriends are our bosses, you know?).
examples: こういちくん、Boboくん, ひろゆきくん
〜ちゃん
This is mainly for girls or young children. It’s pretty affectionate in a “you’re my kid / little sis” kind of way. You’ll also see it being used with people who have known each other for a really long time (or just know each other really well). When using ちゃん, a lot of times names will be shortened too. For example, my name (こういち) is shortened to こう so that people can say こうちゃん. As a rule of thumb, you’ll usually want to shorten someone’s name to one or two syllables. Basically, you just need to choose something that sounds good. There are lots of set shortenings as well – you’ll just have to see enough of them to be able to do this easily yourself.
examples (shortened): こうちゃん、Boっちゃん, ひろちゃん
〜せんせい（先生）
せんせい means “teacher,” so whenever you’re talking to your teacher you’d attach this to their name (preferably their last name). Maybe you’d call me こういちせんせい? You’ll also hear せんせい being used with doctors as well, maybe because they think they’re all that.
examples: こういちせんせい、Boboせんせい、ひろゆきせんせい
〜せんぱい（先輩）
This is somewhat similar to せんせい, except it’s for peers who are higher (level, rank, grade, what-have-you). You might add this to the end of someone’s name who is a grade or two ahead of you in school, or more skilled at you in some kind of trade, like woodworking, for example. Don’t confuse this one with せんせい. This is more like a hierarchy / relationship between students and people who are not the teacher.
examples: こういちせんぱい、Boboせんぱい、ひろゆきせんぱい
At this point, you should actually learn the five “name-ender honorifics” so that you have them in your head. For this, I’d recommend taking notes on them in your language log so you can access it easily when we practice these (along with what we’ve learned) on the next page. Time to look at… “the job board.”
Alright, it’s finally time to introduce yourself. How do you think you’ll do? Go ahead, give it a shot. Say it out loud.
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わたし は >name< です
How’d you do? Hopefully I didn’t trick you by putting this in a lesson where you learn name-enders, right? You didn’t add さん to your own name, I hope. さん elevates the person who’s name you add it to, which means you shouldn’t add it to your own name. If you got it wrong, just try it again, and move on. No biggie!