Why these words, 「お読み」 and 「お使い」 do not use te-form in this sentence?


I have came across the following sentence in an instruction manual and I'm
curious why they did not use them in the te-form.

この取{と}り扱{あつかい}説{せつ}明{めい}書{しょ}をよく **お読{よ}み** いただき, 正{ただ}しく **お使{つか}い** 下{くだ}さい。




In formal Japanese, this is the standard 連用形. It's used in place of て form of
verbs when linking. It's usage in 敬語{けいご} actually goes beyond this, with
these suffixes also helping form verbs. In the context of your quote, both are
replaceable with て form in everyday speech.

The general rule being to take the ます stem, remove this, and replace as
necessary

> 座ります -> お座りください Please sit
>
> 伝えます -> お伝えください Please tell them
>
> 連絡します -> ご連絡ください -> Please contact / get in touch

Note that you remove する if the verb takes this. Other examples for 〜頂く：

> お読みいただき
>
> お電話いただき

Not all verbs conjugate like this, and some take ご rather than お. The
instruction manual uses them to keep the writing polite and formal to the
buyer. As for when to use it yourself, the finer rules are all part of
敬語{けいご}, which is itself more complex than can be summarized in one answer.




In formal Japanese, this is the standard 連用形. It's used in place of て form of
verbs when linking. It's usage in 敬語{けいご} actually goes beyond this, with
these suffixes also helping form verbs. In the context of your quote, both are
replaceable with て form in everyday speech.

The general rule being to take the ます stem, remove this, and replace as
necessary

> 座ります -> お座りください Please sit
>
> 伝えます -> お伝えください Please tell them
>
> 連絡します -> ご連絡ください -> Please contact / get in touch

Note that you remove する if the verb takes this. Other examples for 〜頂く：

> お読みいただき
>
> お電話いただき

Not all verbs conjugate like this, and some take ご rather than お. The
instruction manual uses them to keep the writing polite and formal to the
buyer. As for when to use it yourself, the finer rules are all part of
敬語{けいご}, which is itself more complex than can be summarized in one answer.

