お〜ください

お〜ください is a RESPECTFUL request, distinctly more polite than 〜てください: take the ます-form, drop ます, and sandwich it between お and ください — 待ちます→お待ちください (please kindly wait), 入ります→お入りください (please come in), 掛けます→お掛けください (please have a seat). Sino-Japanese verbs use ご: ご注意ください (please take care), ご連絡ください (please contact us), ご確認ください.

This is the pattern you'll HEAR most in daily life in Japan: station announcements (ご注意ください), shops (少々お待ちください), elevators, airplanes. Staff always address customers with this pattern instead of 〜てください — 待ってください sounds like a direct demand, while お待ちください is "we kindly ask you to wait."

Verbs that have a special honorific form use that form's version: ご覧ください (please take a look — from ご覧になる), お召し上がりください (please help yourself — from 召し上がる). And when you want to ASK a superior to do something for you even more earnestly, use 〜ていただけませんか from the giving–receiving chapter; お〜ください leans toward invitations and instructions from the serving side.

Examples

• こちらで少(すこ)しお待(ま)ちください。

  Please wait here a moment.

• どうぞお入(はい)りください。

  Please, come in.

• 危(あぶ)ないですから、ご注意(ちゅうい)ください。

  It's dangerous, so please be careful.

Related patterns

• お〜になる
• お〜・ご〜
• 〜ていただけませんか