to do (honorific)
Structure
- お + Verb[stem] + になる
Remember not to use honorific language when speaking about yourself and your actions!
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Does this honor the subject of the verb or the person being spoken to? I would assume the subject, but I don’t know for sure.
For example, is “先生はお帰かえりになりました” giving honor to the teacher or the person you’re telling this information to?
How about in “先生はお見えになりますか？”? Here the listener is the one doing the seeing. Is the honor being given to the teacher being seen? Or the listener doing the seeing?
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@golmschenk
Hey and sorry for the slow answer 
This is a very good question, basically, おーになる is used when you talk about the actions of someone you want to exalt.
So it doesn’t necessarily have to exalt the interlocutor (the person you are talking with).
For example, if you are talking with a friend about the professor, you can simply say:
先生はお見えになった？
and it is casual towards your friend, but honorific towards the professor.
But when you talk about the same professor to your senpai or someone to whom you want to be polite then you simply use the polite form:
先生はお見えになりましたか？
Also when talking to the person you want to exalt herself:
お帰リになリますか。
I hope that it makes it a bit more clear,
Cheers!
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Hey,
I am not quite sure why this is wrong: 父上はもう[おかえりになりました]んですね。[帰かえる]
I checked the other examples and they mix up long and short forms of なる, but this one asks for [おかえりになった] specifically, is there a reason why?
Thanks for the help!
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@garlicdog
Hey and welcome on the community forums 
It is because of the politeness is usually marked only at the end of the sentence (with some exceptions like before が (but/and), けれども(but), and in some cases から、ので, etc).
So if it is んですね already at the end of the sentence, therefore you don’t have to write polite 御帰りになります, the おかえりになる is enough.
I hope it helps,
Cheers!
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Is there a good reason why this doesn’t also accept なさる ? The linked community help doesn’t actually state a difference between the two, so as far as I’m aware they are for most part equivalent in meaning.
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@TypicalGatsby Nice find! While お〜なさる carries nearly an identical meaning to お〜になる, it is considered quite archaic and old-fashioned, mainly being found in literary work up to the end of the Edo period. That being said, I have added お〜なさる variations to answers that throw hints/warnings rather than marking you incorrectly. Cheers!
歯医者がお見えになるのは3時です。
[The answer is a set phrase meaning “to arrive.”]
Should I have known that 見える means “to arrive” before this came up?
@CrisH There is a note under the example sentence on the main grammar point page that reads: “お見えになる is a set phrase meaning ‘to arrive.’” Cheers!
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Hi! I am a little confused about one of the examples for this grammar point:
" 今いま田中たなか様さまが おめしあがりになっています"
I thought that 召し上がる was already humble and so in this example the correct answer would just be 召し上がります. However, the answer wanted has both the honorific お and wants you to add になる to the end. I thought this construction was only for verbs that don’t have a humble form?
Thanks for any help!
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This grammar point just doesn’t make sense to me at all.
こちらの商品を 求もとめになった お客様
why can’t we use なりました？
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It’s because ～ます/～ました finishes a sentence, so this being in the middle of a sentence, the plain form should be used here, and if it is a polite sentence, then you just need to stick です on the end.
EDIT: There are of course instances whereby you can use ます in the middle of a sentence, but it can never be followed by a noun, as in this sentence.
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ウェブサイトでご注文になれば、明日のおとどけになります 。[届とどける]
I’ve seen this の used in other places where I would expect a different particle, is there a particular reason why の is used instead of something like 明日に?
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@en_velours
Hey and welcome on the community forums 
It is like this because お届け in this context is a noun. To modify (describe) noun with another noun we need の. になる in this case simply mean “to become”.
So
明日 + の + お届け + なる
tomorrow | of | delivery | will become -putting all of that together→ It will be delivered tomorrow
By the way, if you want to use 明日に then you can say something like this.
ウェブサイトでご注文になれば、明日にお届けします。
(We will humbly deliver it tomorrow)
Actually I have to apologize, because the example wasn’t really a case of honorific language, it was more like humble language. I have replaced the sentence with actual honorific one.
I hope it helps,
Cheers! 
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I had a feeling it was something like that, thanks for clarifying the usage!
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In the notes for おいでになる時間じかんをお伝つたえください。it mentions that お見えになる can also be used in place of くる, but this answer isn’t accepted (not even a shake with hint to use something else). Is that a bug or can お見えになる really not be used here? If so it should be removed from the notes as that is confusing.
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@tomwamt
Hey and welcome on the community forums
お見えになる時間をお伝えください。is a natural sentence like the note says. I just (unfortunately) made a typo in the database, that is why the answer wasn’t accepted.
It should be working now. 
Thank you for the feedback and sorry for the inconvenience,
Cheers!
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I was also wondering this. Especially since the following is also listed as an alternative answer:
田中様がお召し上がりになっていらっしゃいます。
So that’s a special keigo vocab, plus お〜になる, plus 〜ていらっしゃいます.
Wouldn’t 召し上がっています already be sufficiently honorific?
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