Till what age are women called Mademoiselle in France? ?

Question

Till what age are women called Mademoiselle in France? ?

Answer 1

Mademoiselle is the equivalent to 'miss'

It has the same rules as 'miss' to 'mrs'.

Basically you can be known as a mademoiselle your entire life, but if you want to be a 'madame' you have to be married.

So marriage changes the title, not age. Like it does in English cultures =) Just different words

Answer 2

Hi,

I am french and not really agree.

It's thrue that you are SUPOSED to call a woman not married mademoiselle but in reallity if you look young you gona be called mademoiselle by someone older and madame by someone younger.

Around 30 years old even not married you gona be called madame by all the teenagers.

And if you are maried at 18 everybody will call you mademoiselle.

It depend to who you are talking to...

Anyway the mademoiselle usually stop when you look like 25, 27 or more.

Bye and sorry for my misspellings.

Answer 3

Until they get married or have a baby.

Married, no children = Madame

Married with children = Madame

Single with children = Madame

Single without whildren = Mademoiselle

Single (even 90yo) = Mademoiselle

It's not more difficult than that.

Answer 4

Until they are married.

Answer 5

Age and marriage change the title. Although I am married, most people say Mademoiselle to me as I look very young. I would say from what I've observed that around the 30 year old point, women will start to be called Madame automatically whether they are married or not. Calling an older, unmarried woman "mademoiselle" is like calling her an old spinster.

However, a colleague just told me that she heard an 80 year old being called Mademoiselle and that the woman had to have known the baker for a long time for him to call her that and not offend her.  

Answer 6

it doesn't depend on the age.Mademoiselle is for single and young woman. "Madame" is for married woman (youn or less young). But we say that after the age of 40, every woman is always a "madame". however if you want to notice that an "old " woman is still single after 40 years old you can call her "mademoiselle", it's very unpolite but very funny !!!

Answer 7

The rules are somehow complicated. Igorsvenska, Michelle, and Katya are right.

The basic rule is that "Mademoiselle" is used for single women and "Madame" is used for married women (and nowadays for divorced women as well). Some elderly single women really insist on being called "Mademoiselle".

However "Madame" is currently considered more respectful than "Mademoiselle", so you should say "Madame" to the women you meet in a formal context (eg you meet a business partner, a customer), regardless of her marital status. In a formal context, "Mademoiselle" would be used only with children or teenager (eg: The mayor meeting high school students).

In a not-so-formal context, if one does not know the marital status of the woman, one should guess whether the woman is married or not.  If she has children or if she wears a ring, she is probably married. The average age of women getting married is 28 so if the woman looks younger than 28, she is probably single. Saying "Mademoiselle" to a woman is a way to tell her she looks young.

There is no law about using "Mademoiselle/Madame". If the person you meet tells you she want to be called "Mademoiselle", or "Madame", you have to respect her choice.