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Things like「どういたしまして」, someone used「と申しまして」to their name, and more that I
can't recall at the moment, it seemed like it's a te-form of masu-form, but I
can't find any explanations of it. If it exists, how does one conjugate masu
into its te-form and negative te-form? What and how are they used?
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2020-05-24T18:43:14.090
77571
2020-05-25T21:06:41.243
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question
conjugations て-form keigo
Does 'masu' form have its own te-form?
The short answer is yes. It is rarely used, but 「と申しまして」 is certainly an
instance where it could be.

From Martin's _Essential Japanese_ (outdated but often extremely useful), a
section entitled "SPECIAL INFLECTIONS OF -MASU" (accent marks removed,
[]-bracketed expressions are mine):

> The polite ending **-masu** is really itself a verb which is used only when
> attached to other verb infinitives. In ordinary polite speech it is
> inflected only for [... -masu, -mashita, -mashou]. But in honorific speech,
> **-masu** is inflected for all categories except the infinitive [that is,
> there is no **-mashi** ]. These polite forms are used at the end of sentence
> fragments, and also in the middle of sentences instead of the usual plain
> forms, to make the entire expression a bit more honorific:
>
>   * **Soko e oide ni narimashite...** You go there and... [in normal speech
> this would be **soko e itte** ]
>   * **Odeki ni narimashitara...** If you could do it... [in normal speech
> this would simply be **dekitara** ]
>   * **Yukkuri hanashite kudasaimase.** Please speak more slowly.
>

In all these examples (and another, longer one I omitted), it's being used
only with the very honorific-oriented **o[verb -i] ni narimasu** and
**kudasaimasu** verbs. This is no accident. Aside from the fact that it comes
smack-dab in the middle of a lesson on honorific speech, this is exactly the
context in which one might use it (these two verbs aren't the only one it can
be applied to: but they would have a similarly high level of formality, as
**moushimasu** does in contrast to **iimasu** or **yonde imasu**. This level
of honorifics is pretty much reserved for addressing an Edo-era samurai, or
perhaps the CEO of a very large and powerful corporation (and even then,
probably more likely in an anime than in real life - the "powerful old family"
or zaibatsu kind of situation).

However, there are some holdouts where you'd see it (outside of a movie or the
like). 「どういたしまして」is certainly an example, but is of course a set phrase.
Still, it's used with someone you're either deferring to, or you're only
beginning to be acquainted with, as is 「と申します」, and if you were to conjoin
that expression to something else that follows it (or perhaps just to give it
one of those "softened endings", like ending a sentence with が or けど?), then
changing it to 「と申しまして」 is entirely appropriate.

But yeah, there's not really much call for it in "real" situations, and
basically no cases where it'd actually be required of you to form such a
phrase.
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2020-05-25T06:30:52.847
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2020-05-25T21:06:41.243
2020-05-25T21:06:41.243
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