Yes sir!

[Gość: lolek]

Is it ok to say to a woman in a quite formal conversation 'yes sir' in reply
to her question?

[glasscraft]

I think she would prefer if you said "yes madam" :-)

[Gość: Steve]

I would say that apart from some schools, the military and to clients in some service industries (restaurants, hotels, etc), don't say either 'sir' to men or 'madam' to women. It generally gives the impression that you are either accepting the social superiority of the person you are addressing, which most people object to doing, or being sarcastic. I haven't called anyone 'sir' since school and would normally call people by their first name even in a formal meeting where I was meeting them for the first time - in Britain, anyway: Polish custom is much more formal. The convention even for people who have been knighted is to call them Sir Peter, or whatever.

Through my working life in Britain, I even remember that there were only two people who routinely called other people Mr/Mrs plus their last name: even that was sufficiently odd. It is more regularly used, however, where the establishment of friendly personal relations might be detrimental to effective working: normally where one side will be telling the other what to do or judging them, eg social security assessors, the tax people, teachers. Not all of these are that formal in practice though.

On the other hand, there must still be some pompous twats around, so go ahead and say "yes, Madam", but think 'sarcasm' when you say it.

[Gość: lolek]

I can't see how beeing respectfull and polite could do any harm. I use
it all the time and perhaps it's just my Polish nature showing through
but I'm not going to stop. My question, though was wheter it is
correctly to say it to a woman? I know I could have used 'yes ma'am'
but i didn't and now I'm a bit anxious about it.

[Gość: Steve]

Nothing wrong with being polite and respectful. Its just that it sounds a bit weird to me. Nothing wrong with weird either, so please continue. Perhaps it was hidden in the text, but definitely ma'am, not 'sir'. I may also be a bit weird, or at least I like to flatter myself that I am in Poland, but 'Yes, sir'/'Yes, ser' to a woman goes along with 'Tak, Pani Stalina' and 'Jahowl, Herr Hitler', all of which I have had occasion to use. (Family fun! Polish women are so feisty.)

[jeanie_mccake]

At school we had to call teachers "sir" and "miss", but I've never
called anyone ma'am or madam in my life, and I can't think of any
situation where I would (except sarcastically to a child: "It's way
past your bedtime, madam").
If you say "Yes, sir" or "No, ma'am" in extremely formal situations
it's not so bad, folk'll just think you're an awful arselicker. But
in everyday life they'll either think you're weird and don't
understand social and linguistic conventions, or they'll be offended
by your sarcasm and punch you.
People who've spent years in Poland and speak Polish every day (even
French people, etc, who're used to the tu/vous distinction) still
think it's funny to call strangers "Pan" and "Pani", but that's the
convention and I would never go into a shop in Poland and
say "Siema, stary, dasz mi proszę pół kilo mielonego?", even though
that would be much more friendly, and in Scotland it sounds
perfectly natural and normal. "Awright, mate, gaunnae gie's a pun o
mince, please?"
In the same way, I don't mind so much being called "Pani" but if
anyone called me "madam" I'd poke them in the eye with a pencil.

[Gość: lolek]

John Snow said thank you, sir to an interviewee on the channel 4 news just a
couple of minutes ago. I am not too sure whether your doubts are as justified as
you would like to think.
Anyway, my question has been more or less answered. Thank you.

[jeanie_mccake]

Obviously there are some jobs and situations where certain folk
say "sir" etc., but unless you're in prison, working at an expensive
hotel or interviewing an important guest on a prestigious news
programme then it's much better not to.