Honorific Verbs

Honorific verbs are used when talking about someone above you in the social hierarchy, or when talking to someone you don't know very well (especially with shopkeepers speaking to customers and the like). These verbs "bestow honor" upon the person performing the action, and can be very roughly translated as "Person X graciously does Y."

There are some verbs that have direct honorific forms, and some that do not. I'll list the most common ones below.

いる
行く      -  いらっしゃる        -  いらっしゃいます
来る

見る     -  ご覧になる

言う      -  おっしゃる          -  おっしゃいます

する     -  なさる                 -  なさいます

食べる -  召し上がる
飲む

くれる  -  くださる               -  くださいます

寝る    -  お休みになる

ている -  ていらっしゃる   -  ていらっしゃいます

The first column shows the original verbs, with the second and third showing their honorific forms and their irregular conjugations. I'm going to use some of Genki's example sentences now since I'm not at all familiar with honorific usage.

先生は今日学校にいらっしゃいません。
The professor will (graciously) not go to/come to/be at school.

The above sentence is ambiguous since いらっしゃる is an honorific for three different verbs that describe an action pertaining to location.

何を召し上がりますか？
What will you (graciously) drink?

田中さんのお母さんがこの本をくださいました。
Tanaka's mother (graciously) gave me this book.

If a verb does not have an honorific counterpart, there are two ways to add the "respect factor." If the verb is in て form in the sentence, then ている is replaced with ていらっしゃいます.

先生は電話で話していらっしゃいます。
The professor is (graciously) talking on the phone.

If the verb in the sentence is not in て form, then it is preceded by the honorific お and followed by になる.

先生はもうお帰りになりました。
The professor has already (graciously) gone home.