The “O” prefix in Japanese

The prefix ”O” is used to provide greater honour to the word.  We have seen this prefix in some words and other words are no longer separated from the “O” at all.  This prefix is also used with words that are associated with dirt, such as bathroom or money.

Otearai = bathroom
kane = money

In other words, the “O” is added to give more honour to the meaning of the word. This occurs for example with the following words:

Onamae = your name
Ohanashi = the chat/talk

In some cases, the prefix is part of the word

ocha = tea
gohan = rice

Gohan means cooked rice or food

Remember, the lesson “Ogenki desu ka“?

It is the same thing here.
Genki is health, when you ask for someone’s health, you add ”O“.

the answer: Genki desu ka

The ”O” is removed, because it may sound presumptuous.

At other times they use the prefix ”go“ to add honour to the word. When do you use ”go“ and when do you use “O“? Well, you have to learn the words, because there isn’t a specific rule, although the function is exactly the same.
The only thing I found is that ”go“ is used with Japanese words that originate from Chinese and “O“ is used with native Japanese words. Anyway you will have to learn which words originate from Japan or China.

(go)hon = your book
(go)shujin =  your husband.

Something very curious happens with the word ‘rice’. When you buy the rice it is “kome“ and when you have cooked the rice it’s “gohan“.

“Okome” is used to give more importance to this word, curiously in the manga ”One Piece” there is a character named ”Okome“ who wears a bowl of rice on his head.

Another example is the famous manga ”Dragonball”, the first son of the protagonist is named “Gohan“. Apart from “cooked rice” this word also means ”meal”.