Can the honorific o be used in front of all nouns?


Can the honorific o be used in front of all nouns? I was thinking of sentence
structures and wondering if o could be placed in front of all nouns. Thank
you.




The Ministry of Education's guidance is (or used to be) that honorific
prefixes should only be used where their usage was well-established by custom,
and that as a rule お should be used before Japanese words and ご(御) before
"kango" (Chinese or Chinese-style words). Thus, おさけ and おはし(お箸) but ご主人 and
ご本人. Honorific prefixes shouldn't be used before 外来語 (non-Chinese foreign
imports). I seem to remember that they particularly disapproved of おビール and
おコーヒー. But you will hear this rule disregarded ten times (well, maybe twice) a
day. The best advice is :listen to the usage of native-speakers whose Japanese
you are happy to take as a model and follow their example.




The Ministry of Education's guidance is (or used to be) that honorific
prefixes should only be used where their usage was well-established by custom,
and that as a rule お should be used before Japanese words and ご(御) before
"kango" (Chinese or Chinese-style words). Thus, おさけ and おはし(お箸) but ご主人 and
ご本人. Honorific prefixes shouldn't be used before 外来語 (non-Chinese foreign
imports). I seem to remember that they particularly disapproved of おビール and
おコーヒー. But you will hear this rule disregarded ten times (well, maybe twice) a
day. The best advice is :listen to the usage of native-speakers whose Japanese
you are happy to take as a model and follow their example.

