If you met your leader do you have a specific word for them? For example, the Queen of England should be called “Your Majesty”.
Do you have words like “excellency” or “Mr./Madam President”?
In Ireland, our President is referred to as “A Uachtaráin” which is Irish for “President”.
Our Taoiseach goes by many names. Sometimes he’s just called “Taoiseach”, he can also be refered to as “Deputy” or his name “Micheál”. The Taoiseach is a much more modest position and so he is not held in such a high regard as the president.
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When I met the (last) prime minister I just called her by her first name. The king is supposed to be addressed as “Hans Majestet” which is Norwegian for “your majesty”. So for example: “how is his majesty?”
The usual form of addressing the king is to call him “the king” to his face, thus speaking to him in the third person which might seem odd but it’s a lot more manageable than going on about his royal highness or Majesties this or that. The statsminister just gets her last name or if you’re feeling like it, first name.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior [has a guide on adressing properly according to protocol.](https://www.protokoll-inland.de/SharedDocs/downloads/Webs/PI/DE/Allgemeines/Anschriften.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1)
Basically, it’s simply Herr / Frau Bundespräsident(in) , Bundeskanzler(in) (Mr / Mrs Federal President, Chancellor … ) etc. Written form would be “Hochverehrter Bundespräsident”. Would it be rude? When being invited to formal events with the President in attendance and you‘re speaking to him, yes, according to protocol. Even though you are most likely to be briefed prior meeting him, I think he‘s be cool with it, especially when having a conversation with „normal“ citizens.
You don’t use “excellency” for your own national president but when adressing a foreign president or when foreign people are formally adressing your president. It’s international protocol. Excellency is normally used for (foreign) diplomats, politicians etc.
With the way czech language works it’s almost impossible for native speaker to make such mistake. So if somebody did it, it would be purposefully offensive.
Non-native speaker making a grammar mistake is not offensive.
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Herr Bundeskanzler (this feels so wrong lol) I believe is the correct way to say it, but personally if I met him outside of official circumstances I would probably just say Herr Scholz. Same with the president.
The polite way would be to call them meneer (mister) Rutte but he probably wouldn’t mind if you called him Mark. Prime minister is just a job description, not a personal title, so no need to call him Premier Rutte.
The King and Queen are supposed to be addressed as “Majesteit” (majesty).
I think that there’s a specific way of addressing the president, but I’d just use “señor” to address him. It’s the same way I’d use to address a person I don’t know and that requires some sort of formality.
I’d probably just say “Meneer (Mister) Rutte”. I’m sure there is some official title but I don’t think it would be considered disrespectful if you don’t use it. Especially as someone who isn’t a member of any government institution.
Are we talking about the Queen? Because when you meet the Queen you have to call her “your majesty” the first thing you say to her, and “ma’am” after that. There are rules and I think it would be offensive to break them and she might send armed guards after you or lock you in the Tower or something. If it’s the Prime Minister, you can call him “Prime Minister” or “Mr Johnson” or on the other hand “Boris” or something much ruder than that, should you feel so inclined.
The monarch is adressed as “Your Majesty”(_Deres Majestæt_) and always with the formal You, _De_, instead of the informal _du_. The current pensioner-in-chief once, quite rudely, corrected a journalist who mistakenly adressed her with the informal form. “i DoN’t ThInK wE WeNt tO tHe SaMe sChOol.”
The prime minister on the other hand, is formally referred to as with bourgeoise title, i.e. “Mister/Misses/Miss”, in Danish “_Hr._/_Fr._”, but I can’t think of a single recent prime minister, who hasn’t been adressed by their first name, outside of formal events like galas. Sometimes by their surname alone.
I’ve met the current prime minister once, but that was back when I was still a member of the Social Democratic Party, and before she became Prime Minister. I just called her the informal _du_ and adressed her as Mette, her first name.
To both the president of the Republic and the Prime Minister it’s either “signor presidente” or just “presidente”, though the former is the best and more proper way to address him.
The most cerimonial way is to address them with their full titles so “Signor Presidente della Repubblica” and “Signor Presidente del Consiglio”.
Just witt their title or title and last name.
Our highest executive position is shared equally among the 7 members of the federal council, their title is “Federal councilor” so it’d be: Federal councilor Cassis (to pick the name one of the current 7 members).
Federal councilor obviously being the English translation, but you’d just pick the appropriate title foc whichever language you happened to talk in. If you wanted to suck up to them you would go for their language (for Cassis in the earlier example that’d be Italian). But you don’t have to, federal politicians are expected to speak at least 3 of the official languages.
His official title should be Miniszterelnök úr (prime minister sir), but I don’t think I would be so nice if I addressed him
In the Parliament, I believe, members have to call him this way – or the house leader might ban them from speaking
Our president could be called herra presidentti and presidentti Niinistö in official situations or just Sauli (his first name) in a casual situation.
There’s a video on YouTube where he gives a speech and q&a session(?) in an event organized for homeless people. There was a funny conversation that went like this.
Some guy in the crowd: “SAULI!”
President: Yeh?
Guy: I saw your interview this morning!
President: How did I do?
Guy: It went FUCKING well!
President: Oh thank you. This is the best thing I’ve heard in a while.
In Ireland, it would depend on the context. If I met the president in an official capacity I’d probably say “a h’Uachtarán”, but if it was an unofficial or more casual situation I’d just call him Michael. Ditto Micheál for the Taoiseach
Someone’s already given the correct response for the UK so I’ll go with France which would either be “Monsieur Le Président” (I guess that would be “Madame La Présidente” if Pécresse or Le Pen somehow end up beating Macron?) or “Ça va Manu'”.
In the US you great the president as Mr. President when first greeting and sir after that. A former President is the same. It is considered proper and may be a slight depending on the circumstances. If you are openly hostile to the politician then it would be considered rude. I have met one of each and followed the protocol. Also when meeting someone who has held numerous offices one would use the title for the highest status office held.
I would call the Queen, madam. Nothing but nothing could get me to say your majesty.
If I were to meet Boris Johnson then my dignity prevents me from saying what I’d call him.
I am very respectful to those that deserve it. But I am absolutely never deferential to anyone.
There’s no correct way to call them, however out of respect you would refer to them by their “title” and then their name. For example you’d say predsjedavajući predsjedništva Šefik Džaferović or for City Mayor you’d say gradonačelnica Benjamina Karić.
“De” (formal You) and “Deres majestat” (Your majesty) for the Queen
“Statsministeren” (the prime minister) for the prime minister. “Har statsministerens taget stilling till” “Has the prime minister taken account of…” instead of “Have you”
Address him with his name & patronymic and use the formal “you” pronoun and grammar. We don’t tend use all sorts of titles for presidents, doctors, professors, etc. They’re all just name + patronymic.
I think “господин президент” (sir president) or “господин” + surname are also theoretically possible, but I don’t know if anyone would ever use them unless they’re talking to a foreign leader who doesn’t have a patronymic.
Just the title is fine, “Herr/Frau Bundeskanzler:in”, or “Herr/Frau Bundespräsident:in”.
“Excellency” according to protocol and when on duty.
Then… well… considering it may be possible you have them on messenger it can get quite awkward
You usually address the president as “panie prezydencie” (Mr. president) and the prime minister as “panie premierze” (Mr. prime minister). It’s customary to do that even with former holders of these positions. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone address ex-president Lech Wałęsa with his name.
Norwegian royals are so obsessed with being conceived as ordinary people (folkelig in norwegian ). The future king (now crown prince) going by the alias “Johnny from Stovner”.. Stovner being kind of the hard east-side of the capital. Johnny being the name of more doubtfull characters. So indeed it’s a bit humouristic if they are offended by not being titled your royal highness etc. Might be wrong, but assume there are no royal house in europe more concertned about being “ordinary” than the norwegian one.
In the third person it would be *The Right Honourable [First Minister’s first name and surname] MSP*, that’s very formal for most contexts, and the news for example just refers to them by their name or as “the First Minister”.
Addressing them directly in the second person, it would just be Mr./Mrs. [First Minister’s surname].
First Minister is a role, not a title, so it sounds very clunky to see the FM addressed as *First Minister [surname]*.
“Monsieur le Président” or “Monsieur Macron” are the only decents way. You can go with “Manu” but you might trigger something
I really want someone from Iceland to answer this, given that Icelandic people are properly addressed by their given name.