I was raised to address strangers and those I wish to show social deference to as “Sir” or “Ma’am”. It’s a difficult habit to break, as it is deeply engrained.
What is an equivalent gender neutral honorific that is relatively common in English? If I can’t break the habit I’d rather have a substitute word to use instead of an awkward pause in the middle of addressing someone
I’d just use Google to ask but I’d rather ask the people directly rather than an AI generated answer based off of Reddit threads
ETA: I suppose if Yessir and Yes’m work, Yesn’t could too? Mostly joking… but maybe… 🤔
The scousers (people from Liverpool, England, UK) have a very useful one in their dialect, “Youse” (pronounced Ewes, like the sheep)
And it’s gender neutral, but also double as a group pronoun
(Person, are you going to use that?)
(Depends on context, can be singular, can be group, either “Person, are you going to go outside?” or “People, are you going to go outside?”)
It’s v useful
Pittsburg is similar. Yens
Huh, it’s similar to the Glasgow, Scotland, UK gender neutral one, yons