How to pronounce Madam

[DoctorGilbertson]

DH has a mock exam and will be addressing a female district judge.

Wikipedia tells him:

In the United Kingdom, ... female District Judges are referred to as either Madam or Ma'am.

He would like to know how this is pronounced.

Thanks,

[MrsMcRuff]

Slightly different pronounciation here

More like Mam!

[RiverTam]

don't know about a judge but I do know if you are addressing the Queen as Ma'am, you pronounce it to rhyme with jam.

[RiverTam]

madam is just Madam - Ma-dam (equal emphasis on both syllables I think). Not Madame, which has the emphasis on the 2nd syllable.

[celestialsquirrels]

Ma'am like jam
Not madam through choice always sounds rather old school and patronising.
Perfectly polite to call them Judge or Judge Jones eg if he is role playing he could come in and say "good afternoon Judge" and then do his ma'am-ing later.

[celestialsquirrels]

Or he could go sit in a county court and watch, that would be his best preparation!

[PiratePanda]

Isn't it only the queen for whom you pronounce ma'am to rhyme with jam? I thought for all other purposes it should rhyme with harm. (Unless of course you are American or Australian etc.)

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

It doesn't really matter, just be respectful. Ma'am rhymes with jam when addressing the queen, and the short vowel is harder to get wrong (sounding smarmy, sycophantic or sarcastic) so if he is comfortable enough to say m'am, stick with that.

Madam rhymes with Adam, it doesn't sound like the French Madame.

[celestialsquirrels]

No not just the queen - in the county court ma'am rhymes with jam.
Court staff and legal reps will call all female district judges Judge or Ma'am and all male district judges Judge or Sir.
Only a certain type of counsel who thinks he is a bit too good for the county court will call a female District judge madam. He hopes by using it that the judge will notice that he is much more used to addressing the judges he appears before as "your Honour" or "My lady". Either that or he has just got a ruling he isn't happy with. Almost as a very polite (yet still twattish) way of registering a protest, in the same sort of way that the same type of counsel might say refer to "the learned judge" in a voice which is almost dripping in sarcasm and would be so dripping if only he were a bit braver

A courtroom is a very nuanced place!

[PiratePanda]

Celestial

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

A bit like when a teenager calls their mum 'mother' then.