Let me share with you the best expressions to use when addressing a stranger in English.

Hi, I'm Cherie from FluentU, and we want to help you learn English with real-world videos so that you can speak like a native.

And today, we're going to do that with six essential expressions to know when addressing strangers in English.

Number one, "Excuse me, sir."

This is the perfect polite expression to use to get a male stranger's attention.

Excuse me, sir.

Another way to get a male stranger's attention is to say, "Sorry, sir."

I know that in English, we say sorry when we need to apologize or we did something wrong.

However, we also use the word sorry when we want to get a stranger's attention.

We use the word sir after the word sorry if we are getting the attention of a male.

- Uncommonly good. - Sorry, sir.

Number three, "Excuse me, ma'am."

This is the correct greeting used to get a female stranger's attention.

- Excuse me, ma'am, this is mine.

Another way to get a female stranger's attention is to say, you guessed it, "Sorry, ma'am."

This is an alternative way to address a female stranger in English.

However, keep in mind that you usually refer to older women as ma'am, while younger women, you usually say miss.

Some women take offense for being called ma'am when they're younger.

So just make sure you keep that in mind.

- Excuse me, miss, wondering if you could help me.

While we're discussing strangers, let's briefly discuss how to greet pets.

Yes, pets, because if you're speaking to a stranger at a dog park, for example, you might also want to know how to address their puppy.

I mean, why not, right?

The two words you can use to address a stranger's pet are bud and buddy.

Both of these words are used in the same context, so you can use both of them.

And they mean the same thing.

- Hey, buddy, you lost?

Learning all of these terms and formalities can be a bit tricky to catch onto or remember.

So to make things a little easier for you, we have included a free PDF version of this video for you to review and reference whenever you like.

Just click on the link in the description box below, and you're good to go.

This PDF also covers other information that we didn't mention in this video.

And if you're serious about learning real-life English that is actually authentic, press on that video right over there.

I promise you, you won't regret it.