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「ダンブルドア先生は大切な用事をいつも俺に任せてくださる。おまえさんを迎えに来たり、グリンゴッツから何か持ってきたり....俺を信用していなさる。な?」 (Harry Potter, Japanese TL)
Professor Dumbledore always entrusts important errands to me. Things like picking you up, bringing something from Gringotts (bank).... he trusts me, right? (My TL)

I don't understand the ending on 信用する here. The original book say "(he) knows he can trust me".

I'm guessing this is a keigo thing. I know なさる is the honorific form of する, but I don't see how する would fit in this structure. 信用していする looks like nonsense to me.

Having said that, while writing this question, I've just seen from the dictionary that 呈{てい}する is a word meaning "to show/display/exhibit". I had thought we were dealing with some continuation of state (ている) kind of thing. But now I'm thinking we have 信用し (continuative form of 信用する) + 呈する, where する has been made honorific by changing to なさる. Putting it together I get "he shows trust in me".

  1. Is my analysis correct?
  2. As a native/fluent speaker is this instantly obvious. My brain went straight for the continuation of state (ている) interpretation.
  3. How common is this 呈する? In what situations is it used? Could you please give some more examples?

Footnote: I also saw this link but I think it is unrelated.

user3856370
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  • I don't know the answer, but I do have an idea - Hagrid is supposed to talk in somewhat broken English. So, it cannot be not the correct Japanese. And I have found another quote where it's definitely していなさる: お母さんと同じ目をしていなさる。 – Yaroslav Fyodorov Apr 10 '23 at 14:25
  • However, I think it is spoken by Olivander whom I expect to speak correctly. So, dunno – Yaroslav Fyodorov Apr 10 '23 at 14:36
  • Not sure if this helps, but なさる is more of an addition, rather than something honorifi-ed . https://nihongonosensei.net/?p=20360 – sundowner Apr 10 '23 at 14:52

1 Answers1

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It's 信頼して + い + なさる. 呈する is not used in this sentence.

なさる is a godan verb that not only serves an honorific for する but also attaches the masu-stem of any verb and acts as an honorific auxiliary:

  • 食べなさる to eat (honorific)
  • 食べなさります to eat (polite + honorific)
  • 食べなさりました ate (polite + honorific + past)
  • 食べなされ Eat please! (honorific + imperative)
  • 食べていなさる is eating (honorific + progressive)

Note that these are correct but dated expressions. They mainly appear today as part of the role language of old people or fictional samurai.

In modern Japanese, you are probably more familiar with the irregular conjugated forms of なさる. Actually, the familiar ～なさい form is originally a slurred version of ～なされ:

  • お食べなさいます to eat (honorific; see this)
  • 食べなさい Eat!
  • 食べていなさい Keep eating!

See:

JFYI, 呈する is a tricky verb. You can say 運転なさる or 勉強なさる, but instead of 呈なさる or 愛なさる, you must say 呈しなさる or 愛しなさる. See: Conjugation of する verbs like 発する

naruto
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