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Mademoiselle ou Madame?

  • 18-11-2011 1:32pm
    #1
    keanooo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 445 ✭✭


    I am currently navigating through a potential minefield in my adopted francophone homeland.

    I recently passed a photocopy to a colleague and said: "Voila Madame X..." and then jokingly added on "Ou est-ce que c'est Mademoiselle X?". She quite curtly replied that it certainly isn't "Mademoiselle X", as it is nobody's business whether she is married or not... I replied that with an attitude like that she never will be. (Actually, I didn't. That last bit is a joke).

    This girl is definitely single and is about 23 I'd say.

    Having being burned by this experience I know refer to all girls / ladies as "Madame". Until last weekend when I was getting a coffee for a friend and she said "c'est Mademoiselle", after me having referred to her as “Madame”.

    I have now decided that my new rule of thumb is that unless you are married, or past it (30+), then it's going to be "Mademoiselle"... otherwise it's "Madame".

    Any advice or improvements on this?


Comments

  • #2
    Aard
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,905 ✭✭✭Aard


    I know this isn't particularly helpful, but I pretty much avoided the whole madame/mademoiselle thing as much as I could. Like yourself, I'd only use madame for older women (around 40+), and never mademoiselle. Unless it's something like "Mademoisele ici est....", but then I'd be talking about a friend so it wouldn't really matter. I imagine your colleague got upset because she perceived mademoiselle either patronising or too familiar.


    Are you in France? I can't imagine a Belgian being that up herself somehow...


  • #3
    ValerieR
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 714 ✭✭✭ValerieR


    Indeed, pity there is no "Ms" equivalent in the French language.
    I think the "etiquette" is to call someone who is over, let's say, 20 years of age "Madame" as a standard. Whether the lady then wants to highlight what her current status is, is up to her.
    V


  • #4
    keanooo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 445 ✭✭keanooo


    Merci Monsieur Aard et Mademoiselle R... C'est en Suisse.

    As far as I can make out the etiquette is "Mademoiselle" for any unmarried girl in her twenties or younger. Either way I think there is possibility of offence being taken... so I think that's the side I will choose. I think it's the "Madame"s in their early twenties that are trying to make a point.

    Merci pour les conseils...


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