In the last post we looked over the honorific polite and the honorific polite in the past tense. In today’s post we’ll take a look at the honorific deferential and the honorific deferential in the past tense. With a 하다 ending verb like 사랑하다 (to love), the honorific deferential would be 사랑하십니다 and 사랑하십니까 in the interrogative form. To form the honorific deferential, drop the 다 in 사랑하다 and add 십니다/십니까. With a verb like 가다 (to go), the honorific deferential will be 가십니다/가십니까. To form the honorific deferential, drop the 다 in 가다 and add 십니다/십니까.

The honorific deferential of ㄷ ending verbs like 걷다 (to walk) is 걸으십니다/걸으십니까. The ㄷ in 걷다 will change to a ㄹ and 으십니다/으십니까 will be added. With ㄹ ending verbs like 알다 (to know), the honorific deferential will be 아십니다/아십니까. To form the honorific deferential, drop the ㄹ of 알다 and add 십니다/십니까. For ㅂ ending verbs like 돕다 (to help) the honorific deferential will be 도우십니다/도우십니까. Drop the ㅂ of 돕다 and add 우십니다/우십니까. With 있다 (to be present, to have) the honorific deferential will be 있으십니다/있으십니까. Drop the 다 of 있다 and add 으십니다/으십니까.

Now let’s try forming the honorific deferential in the past tense. 사랑하다 will be 사랑하쎴습니다/사랑하쎴습니까. 가다 will be 가셨습니다/가쎴습니까. 걷다 will be 걸으셨습니다/걸으셨습니까. 알다 will be 아쎴습니다/아쎴습니까. 돕다 will be 도우쎴습니다/도우쎴습니까. 있다 will be 있으쎴습니다/있으쎴습니까. So if the honorific deferential of 이다 (to be) is (이)십니다/(이)십니까, what is the honorific deferential in the past tense? It will be (이)쎴습니다/(이)쎴습니까. If the honorific deferential of 아니다 (to not be) is 아니십니다/아니십니까, the honorific deferential in the past tense will be 아니쎴습니다/아니쎴습니까.

Depending on the situation, the honorific deferential can seem overly polite to use in a conversation. Depending on your relationship with someone, the deferential polite may be the right politeness level needed to show respect for someone, but yet not in the overly polite manner of the honorific deferential. For example, if you’ve take a class with a professor for a semester and the professor knows you on a first name basis, it could be a little awkward using the honorific polite. Using the honorific polite can signal to someone that you want to create a distance in the relationship, especially one that is hierarchical.