Re: formal prefixes
Re: formal prefixes
- Subject: Re: formal prefixes
- From: Yvan KOENIG <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:43:56 +0200
Le 25 sept. 2006 à 19:43, Christopher Nebel a écrit :
On Sep 25, 2006, at 9:25 AM, Mark J. Reed wrote:
On 9/25/06, Yvan KOENIG <email@hidden> wrote:
At first I typed "Mrs Michelle Steiner" and deleted "Mrs"
thinking it
was a bit too formal.
There's a lot more at stake with "Mrs" than formality. You're now
flirting with a whole Pandora's Box of issues: is the woman in
question actually married or not? Does she perhaps take offense at
the inherent sexism of having titles for women that depend on marital
status in the first place? Is she of a sufficient age and/or degree
of conservativity that she would consider it incorrect to use "Mrs."
with her own given name rather than that of her husband?
Ok, then, that's why "Ms." was invented, right? But you never know
when your interlocutor might be so conservative as to be offended by
*that* title's very existence. Still, at the present time it's
probably the safest alternative, which is why I used it in my
intentionally-over-formal reply to Michelle earlier.
As long as we're on the topic and have a French native present,
where is the distinction between the French "Mme" and "Mlle"
drawn? Is it, like English "Mrs" and "Miss", a matter of marital
status, or merely of age?
I will pass infos about the area you are speaking of (Madame as also
others meanings)
About the modern meanings, my dictionary says:
Madame:
-1- Titre donné à toute femme qui est ou a été mariée
-2- Titre donné par respect à certaines femmes, mariées ou non
-3- la maîtresse de maison
Mademoiselle:
-1- Titre donné aux jeunes filles et aux femmes célibataires
-2- La fille de la maison
Just a sample: we said "Mademoiselle Chanel" even when she was more
than 70 years old.
So, normally, the age doesn't matters but I know some spinsters (say
50 years old) which doesn't like to be called Mademoiselle. They
think that often this word is used as a reminder of the fact that
they aren't married.
Now, I will take my turn.
As my interlocutor here is important in Apple land, may you explain
to Pages author that when they write a Table tools, it would be fine
to take care of countries which are not using period as decimal
separator. They forgot that and the Table tool is perfectly unusable
for a french user.
If you wish I may send details in private. I write about that here
because I am tired to report bugs without any kind of feedback.
Yvan KOENIG
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