[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Sumippi

So... 敬語 includes 丁寧語,尊敬語 and 謙譲語, and 普通体 is something that's not 敬語, right? Oh I don't remember learning the word 普通体...I'm even not sure if I've ever seen this word in my life...あほやん！どうしよう　笑!!

ハハ

外国語を勉強する生徒の母語話者より文法用語が知って いることが全く多いですよね。例えば、ベネズエラで育 った家内の英語文法の知識が詳しいです。「whichとthatは どう違うか」と、アメリカ人にきいたら、まあ、アメリ カ人は答えられないかもしれないけど、家内はできます ！

Yes, o/go must be difficult, I guess. I don't think I can explain the usage of お and 御, I'm just using them without thinking about any rules...We say お茶 but not 御茶(gocha), we say ご飯 but not お飯(ohan). お水。お湯。お料理。お食事。ご機嫌。ご無沙汰。ご進 物。お知らせ。お尻。ご本。お豆腐。お箸。お豆さん(wh at is this さん？！ww)　お言葉。お世話。お車。おみ足...！？ww お手洗い、お洗濯、ご登場、ご対面、...ルールが…難し いです～（^_^;）

What I was taught is that: For almost all Japanese-origin words, use お. For almost all loan words from Chinese to Japanese (i.e., "Sino-Japanese words"), use ご. For Sino-Japanese words that have been an integral part of Japanese for a really long time, break the rule and use お. This explains お茶 even though it's from the Chinese "cha1".

You eventually develop an ear for telling the difference in the same way educated native English speakers eventually can tell whether a Modern English word came from Old English, French, Latin, or Greek (but often the word went Latin->French->English, so there is some ambiguity).