Addressing others

§  Strangers or anyone meriting respect as "ji"/"jee" (Hindi: जी used as a suffix) as in "Please call a taxi for Goyal-ji" (North, West and East India)

§  Use of prefixes "Shree"/"Shri" (Devanagari: श्री meaning Mister) or "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" (Devanagari: श्रीमती meaning Ms/Mrs): Shri Ravindra Patel or Shreemati Das Gupta. "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" is used for married women. "Kumari" (Devnagari: कुमारी literally meaning a virgin) can be used for unmarried (as opposed to single) women or girls. "Sushri" (Devnagari: सुश्री a more recent addition and appropriate translation of Ms where marital status cannot be determined or is unimportant). The Tamil equivalent of such terms is "thiru" (திரு) and "thirumathi" (திருமதி).

§  In Telugu, either "Sree"-as a prefix or "Garu"-as a suffix are used in formal contexts.

§  In Kannada,it "shree " or "ravaru"-as a prefix.

§  Analogous titles "Thiru" and "Thirumathi" are used in Tamil.

§  As with Shree/Shreemati, use of suffixes "Saahib/Sāhab" (Mr) and "Begum" (Mrs) (Urdu) as in "Welcome to India, Smith-saahib" or "Begum Sahib would like some tea".

§  The suffix "sir" is used for male teachers, professors, instructors and coaches and they are often addressed simply as "sir" (For e.g. Gupta-sir). The female equivalents are "miss", "madam" or "teacher" (For e.g. Agarwal-miss, Godbole-madam and Ganguly-teacher). The term of address "teacher" is applied almost always to female teachers only, while male teachers are called "sirs" (except when stating or referring to their occupation), (for e.g. "The sir is late to class today", "There are some sirs sitting in the staff room")

§  Use of "mister" and "missus" as common nouns for wife/husband. For example, "Jyoti's mister stopped by yesterday" or "My missus is not feeling well".

§  "Master" is a common honorific for young boys (children, teenagers). e.g.: Master Kumar.

§  Use of honorifics (Mr, Mrs, Ms) with the first name. For example, Swathi Ashok Kumar might be addressed as "Ms Swathi" instead of "Ms Kumar". This is the only possible correct usage in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, where most people do not use a surname. (The trailing caste names have gone out of vogue.)

§  Use of the English words 'uncle' and 'aunty' as suffixes when addressing people such as distant relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, even total strangers (like shopkeepers) who are significantly older than oneself. E.g., "Hello, Swathi aunty!" In fact, in Indian culture, children or teenagers addressing their friends' parents as Mr Patel or Mrs Patel(etc.) is rare and may even be considered unacceptable or offensive (in the sense of referring to an elder person by name). A substitution of Sir/Ma'am, while common for addressing teachers/professors or any person in an official position, would be considered too formal to address parents of friends or any other unrelated (but known) elder persons. On the contrary, if the person is related, he/she will usually be addressed with the name of the relation in the vernacular Indian language, even while conversing in English. For example, if a woman is one's mother's sister, she would not be addressed (by a Hindi speaker) as "auntie" but as Mausi (Hindi: मौसी) (by a Kannada speaker as Chikkamma Kannada: ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮ, by a Marathi speaker as "mavashi", Marathi: मावशी). Calling one's friends' parents aunty and uncle was also very common in Great Britain in the 1960s and 1970s but is much rarer today. The terms 'Uncle' and 'Aunty' with certain intonations can also connote a derogatory reference to the advanced age of an individual.

§  Similar to the use of 'uncle' and 'aunty as suffixes, 'didi' (elder sister) or 'bhāi' or 'bhaiyya' (elder brother) may be used for people between 1–15 years older than oneself. The use of 'bhāi' as a suffix is very common amongst North Indians and Urdu speakers. In other parts of India, terms from local languages may be used instead, for e.g. 'tāi' (elder sister) and 'bhāu' or 'dādā' (elder brother) in the case of Marathi.

§  In stereotypical depictions of gang culture, especially the Mumbai underworld, gangsters are frequently addressed to with the suffix 'bhai'.

§  People young enough to be one's children may be addressed as 'betā' (both genders) or 'beti' (female) in an endearing and informal sense. The use of 'betā' as a suffix is also possible, though not as common as 'uncle' and 'aunty'.

§  Use of Respected Sir while starting a formal letter instead of Dear Sir. Again, such letters are ended with non-standard greetings, such as "Yours respectfully", or "Yours obediently", rather than the standard "Yours sincerely/faithfully/truly".

§  Sharma sir is not here - same as Sharma-ji is not here, a respectful address. Does not imply knighthood. The female equivalent is "ma'am" or "madam".