84639
I've been having a play with Duolingo and I came across this utterance:

> 果物を **お一つ** どうぞ。

So far I've come across some pretty unnatural stuff and it's left me rather
skeptical. I've never seen an honorific on a number before. Assuming this is
natural how should it be used? Can I add お to any number plus counter, and
when should I do so?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-16T21:01:25.523
84631
2021-03-17T09:00:02.047
7944
question
grammar keigo honorifics
Honorific on a number
Short answer: Yes, おひとつ is perfectly natural.

As @Eddie Kal pointed out in the comment, お一人様 is also very common, as well as
お二人様 and おふたつ. And I fully agree with @Eddie Kal that お is not used with more
than 2 people/pieces. According to [this
site](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1284703442)
apparently it's not impossible to say お三つ, but it's not only unnatural, but
also it's rather unlikely that the interlocutor understands what you meant to
say. Other than these cases, I cannot really come up with a case where お is
used with numbers.

For おひとつ and おふたつ, I don't think whether with or without お really matters
(especially in the example you mentioned above, I don't really see a
particular difference), but for お一人様 and お二人様, it sounds weird if you say just
一人様. If you are not sure, say 一名様、二名様、三名様 etc. These are Chinese numbers and
by definition お is not used (if ever Chinese words are used in the honorific
form, it would be with ご, although in this case for some reason you don't need
ご).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-17T09:00:02.047
84639
2021-03-17T09:00:02.047
42189
84631
answer