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… 🤔
Oftentimes I just leave out honorifics when I am unsure of the gender or preferred terms of the person I am speaking with. If I know for a fact that they are non-binary then “Mx” can work, though not everyone is fond of it and I would hate to offend. Honestly I usually just substitute it in ways such as the below (though i speak pretty casually in general).
What can I do for you friend?
Sure thing love
Have a nice day hun
Writing it is one thing, but how are you supposed to pronounce it? It can’t possibly be “mix;” that’d be like pronouncing “Mr.” as “murr” instead of “mister.”
You are correct in that “Mx” is most often pronounced as “mix”. It isn’t a direct abbreviation like “Mr” is to “Mister”, but rather derived as a neutral variant to those types of honorifics, so don’t over think it. This is the wild world of the English language after all