Bonjour Madame or Mademoiselle

How do you make a judgement call as to whether to use Madame or Mademoiselle when greeting a female?

Is there a distinctive age line where you would change from Mademoiselle to Madame. Under 30 / over 30? Under 20 / over 20?

Or does that make things too hard?

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Don%26#39;t worry about it, go with what you think the person is, if you are wrong they will correct you and no harm done.

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ozbod ~%26gt; Do you think they would be offended if you simply say Bonjour et Bonsoir? To me I think the acknowledgement alone is important. Or if you have keen ears you could listen to others and follow suit.

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Thanks

I will just go with the flow.

Seems like its not a big deal.

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it is important to include the Madam -- bonjour by itself has a sort of %26#39;hey you%26#39; feel to it in French

Use Madam unless the individual is a child or teen -- or

very young -- certainly under 25 --

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I was told in high school French class that one was always to assume that a French woman was married and address her as %26quot;Madame%26quot; unless it was perfectly obvious that she was too young to be married.

I don%26#39;t know how true this is, but I also heard that in Spain the opposite logic prevails and you always call a woman signorina (or however it%26#39;s spelled) unless you know otherwise, thereby paying her the compliment that she looks far too young to be married.

AKat

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ozbod ~%26gt; Sorry for maybe giving you improper advice. Coming from an English and French speaking country I can only tell you what I know. And here it would not be impolite to say an informal Bonjour or Bonsoir. And if you know the person more informally you could even say Salut.

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For what it%26#39;s worth -- I have a book called %26quot;Tune up your French%26quot; for intermediate and advanced French speakers, and it comes with an instructional CD narrated by native French speakers. They say it sounds curt to just say %26quot;Bonjour.%26quot; When you walk into a shop, you should say %26quot;Bonjour Monsieur%26quot; or Bonjour Madame,%26quot; and you use Madame unless you are talking to a girl. They say it%26#39;s more polite to use Madame whether a woman is single or married.

There%26#39;s an interesting section in the book on who%26#39;s ruder -- the French or Americans. It says, %26quot;French shopkeepers expect you to say Bonjour, monsieur and Bonjour, Madame. They insist on good manners from their customers. The American customer is used to being %26#39;always right%26#39; and expects good manners from salespeople.%26quot;

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media ~%26gt; Thanks for that information. Interesting how things are done on different sides of the pond with regard to the same language.

ozbod here%26#39;s something I found that you may find interesting to read. Looks like it may be fairly recent.

usatoday.com/travel/…

Here%26#39;s one about Quebec and I realize that Quebec is not Paris so don%26#39;t get me wrong I%26#39;m not trying to compare at all.

virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/Cana…

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Thankyou all for your input.

Being an Australian, I am not used to such formal greetings. I will really have to make a conscious effort.

(I guess G%26#39;day Mate won%26#39;t get me very far).

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It%26#39;s a judgement call. There is no hard and fast %26#39;..rule..%26#39;. One would apply the same relative age / prospective marital status %26#39;..standard..%26#39; over the question of whether to employ %26#39;..madame..%26#39; or %26#39;..mademoiselle..%26#39; in Paris that one might apply to %26#39;..madam..%26#39; or %26#39;..miss..%26#39; in Sydney (%26#39;..Sheila..%26#39; is NOT an option). The one aspect of the matter that should not be in question is that you make the sincere effort to extend the basic, common courtesy to the individual.