# Double honorific



## idialegre

If I invite someone to try some food, I would say

 드셔  보십시오 !

Is this correct? Specifically, I am concerned about the "double honorific", i.e., the syllable -시- which occurs in  드시다 and then again in 보십시오. Is that admissible?

Thanks for your help!


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## oloekis

idialegre said:


> If I invite someone to try some food, I would say
> 
> 드셔 보십시오 !
> 
> Is this correct? Specifically, I am concerned about the "double honorific", i.e., the syllable -시- which occurs in 드시다 and then again in 보십시오. Is that admissible?
> 
> Thanks for your help!


 

There are actually triple honorific in the sentence. 
First, "들다", is an honorific of "먹다(to eat)". 
Second and third, -시- as in 드시다 and 보시다 is also an honorific ending for subject in the sentence. 

It's not always wrong to use a lot of honorifics in the sentence by the way. It's general to use -시- in the last predicate in a sentence, but also -시- can be used in the other predicate as well, according to the national academy of Korean language. 

But using a lot of honorifics in a sentence can be wrong because It's rather not really respectful if you use it too much and also because It's not always natural to use -시- in all predicate. 

Thus, it seems alright to use honorifics depending on how you would feel whether the honorific is too much or not, and also on whether the use of -시- is natural or not. It sounds almost impossible for foreigners to feel/know, though. 

As for the sentence "드셔 보십시오", even though there are a lot of honorifics, it is totally natural to hear. And It seems it doesn't have too much honorifics, although it does have a lot of honorifics in the sentence. So you can say it without problem


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## idialegre

감사합니다, littlemonyou!


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## AlJaahil

As I understand it, using too many honorifics can sound sarcastic - as when I was young my father would sometimes tell me to do something by "asking" me if "the young gentleman would be so kind as to..."


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## idialegre

AlJaahil said:


> As I understand it, using too many honorifics can sound sarcastic - as when I was young my father would sometimes tell me to do something by "asking" me if "the young gentleman would be so kind as to..."



Haha , that's cute.


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## terredepomme

From the most honorific to the least:
드셔보십시오
드셔봐요
먹어봐요
먹어봐

There should be no spaces, by the way.


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## wildsunflower

You can say "들어보십시오", "들어보셔요" or "들어봐요". To me, they sound less honorific and more natural than "드셔보십시오" and "드셔봐요". Actually, "드셔봐요" sounds a bit awkward to my ears.


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