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I recently came across an example of someone saying 'お返しする' rather than 'お返しします' about 18 seconds into this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vazHI4jN6lc&t=18s

Under what circumstances should people use the short form of an extra modest expression? Or does it have something to do with the fact that the speaker is a child?

aguijonazo
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SpikedHelmet
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    This girl (カンナ) rarely uses keigo even when talking with someone she respects (トール), so that's simply her way of speaking. – naruto Jul 25 '21 at 01:03
  • Kind of related: [does anyone know of any o-words or go-words which are absolutely neutral?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/2292/43676) – aguijonazo Jul 25 '21 at 05:56

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A simple answer is, yes it is used as お返しする since the speaker is a child. It looks like the girl speaks without です/ます endings, and that is why お返しする is used.

Probably a confusing thing is that お返し is certainly お＋返し, but to mean the favor in return, お返し is the only possible form.

You can see many samples mentioned in the definition of 返し are prefixed by お, and those お cannot be omitted.

In other words, お in お返しする exists because of vocabulary, and not (very much) of 敬語. I cannot really think of other phrases (usable by a child) to mean return the favor than お返しする. (Maybe お礼する is possible, but again お cannot be omitted)

sundowner
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