Have you heard of Japanese people call someone, “~ san(さん)”, or “~ chan(ちゃん)”? Or if you are a baseball fan, you might have heard, “Ma-kun (マー君)” in the news. Ma-kun (マー君) is referring to Masahiro Tanaka who is a pitcher for NY Yankees.  In Japanese, we use many honorific suffixes depending on the situation. In the next few articles, I would like to discuss all about Japanese honorific suffixes. I will explain each one of the most common honorific suffixes in detail.

Japanese Honorific Suffixes

In Japanese language, people often attach honorific suffixes at the end of nouns, including people’s names, nicknames, company names, and animals. There are many types of honorific suffixes in Japanese, but the most common ones are, ~san(さん), ~ chan(ちゃん), ~ kun(くん), ~sama(さま、様).  In this article, I will explain about ~san(さん).

~san(さん)

This is a very common honorific to be used for any occasion. In Japanese, we normally don’t call each other by first name unless you are related to the person, you are good friends with the person, or the person you are talking to is much younger than yourself. If you meet someone for the first time, you almost always call the person by “last name + san”, for example, “Yamada-san(やまださん)”, or “Tanaka-san(たなかさん)”.

~san(さん) is also used for workplace or store. For example, bookstore is referred to as “Honya-san(ほんやさん、本屋さん)”. Or fish market is referred to as, “Sakanaya-san(さかなやさん、魚屋さん)”.  When you are talking to a younger child, it is common to use this honorific; however, this is also used often during the conversation among females. Females like to add “san(さん)” more often than males to be polite.  Males might refer to bookstore just as “honya(ほんや、本屋)”, rather than “honya-san(ほんやさん、本屋さん)”.

~san(さん) can be also used for animals. Again, especially if you are talking to younger children. San(さん) honorific is attached at the end of an “animal name”. For example, “Zo-san(ぞうさん), elephant”, “Kuma-san(くまさん), bear”, and “Inu-san(いぬさん), dog” etc… If  conversation is taking place just among adults, this honorific is not typically used.  Each animal is expressed without san(さん), for example,  “Zo(そう)”, “Kuma(くま)” and “Inu(いぬ)” etc..

One last note, ~san(さん) is also used at the end of company names. For example, adults might call the company, Mitsubishi by “Mitsubishi-san(みつびしさん、三菱さん)”. This expression does not have anything to do with speaking to younger children.

Hope you got to know a bit about ~san(さん) honorific suffix. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment. Next article will focus on ~ chan(ちゃん).