<p>In my opinion, if you are adult and the person who droppd wallet is:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>younger than 11, you can call him or her "小朋友";</p></li>
<li><p>at the age of 11 to 18, you can call him or her "同学";</p></li>
<li><p>at the age of 18 to 24, you can call him "同学", "帅哥(cool man)", and call her "同学", "美女(beautiful girl)";</p></li>
<li><p>at the age of 24 to 35, you can call him "帅哥", and call her "美女";</p></li>
<li><p>older than 30, it really depend on your age and the person's age. For example, the person is 42, and you are 23, you can call him "叔叔(uncle)", and call her "阿姨(aunt)".</p></li>
</ol>

<p>However, you can call the person who dressed very fashionably "帅哥","美女", eventhough he(she) is older than 35.</p>

<p>In addition, I think the person will usually stop walking, if you shout "喂，你的钱包掉了！(Hey, You dropped your wallet.)"</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T07:11:04.237Z
Is it really ok to use 同学 for stranger? As I just realized it's more for schoolmate. How about 同事?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T08:00:57.697Z
帅哥 and 美女 is kinda creepy.
amateur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:00:18.257Z
@suud It is ok to use "同学", if the guy is young. "同事" is not appropriate, and usually be used to address colleague.
zz22
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:05:44.953Z
@amateur I think it's ok. I often use it, and nobody shows they dislike the appellation.
zz22
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:29:30.320Z
@suud "同学，你+掉了": 47,100,000 google search results;
"帅哥，你+掉了": 15,200,000 google search results;
"美女，你+掉了": 53,700,000 google search results
zz22
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:32:11.733Z
+1 for "Hey, You dropped your wallet!"
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T14:18:54.817Z
Is it not creepy for a foreigner to say to a stranger  
帅哥 or 美女? Likewise, it's strange to hear 大哥 (boss). These don't seem appropriate. And 同学 doesn't seem right unless you're from the same school (in uniform). It also sounds like something from communist times. I guess if you really had to... maybe 老兄? (buddy, pal). If a woman is younger.. maybe 小妹.
amateur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T23:04:52.887Z
Amateur has a point.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T06:53:29.397Z
2014-02-17T09:30:46.083Z
2014-02-17T09:30:46.083Z
zz22
<p>You would shout:</p>

<p>喂！喂！先生! 你掉了钱包!</p>

<p>(Wèi! Wèi! Xiānshēng! Nǐ diào le qiánbāo!)</p>

<p>Hey! Hey! Sir! You dropped your wallet!</p>

<p>喂 is important to attract attention.</p>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> Never use 小姐 (xiǎo jiě) to address a mainland Chinese woman. This has developed into a derogatory slang term meaning "slut" in mainland China (referring to those who work in hostess bars).  It's only OK to use in Taiwan where it retains the original meaning "Miss". It's also OK in other dialects such as Cantonese. Remember, this term is no longer OK in Mandarin usage in China.</p>

<p>If you need to address a woman in China, call her 大姐 (dà jiě).</p>

<p><strong>Extra:</strong> 同伴 (partner) is weird. Don't use it. It's like "Hey, comrade!". 同学 would be OK if you're from the same school, otherwise it's awkward. Better stick with 先生. I would advise against using 大哥 as it sounds gangsterish and uncouth.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T05:20:43.947Z
Thanks for your answer. Like Stan said, 先生 (Xiānshēng) sounds too formal although it's acceptable, especially when you address to same age young male. Is there less formal alternative to 先生?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T05:32:23.660Z
It's not too formal. Don't think of it as actually "Sir vs. Ma'am". It's just a way to identify a man vs. woman.
amateur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T06:01:33.050Z
1) to @suud: For the "先生" issue, I just said "to me", it's subjective. 2) to amateur: For the "大姐" issue, I think *young* ladies won't be happy to hear others call them like that; 3) For the "大哥" issue, I think it's a regional problem. If you use it in northern China, it sounds quite natural but in contrast 先生 would sound unnatural -- only waiters, civil servants or some other people with special identity would **often** use 先生 in some special circumstance.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T06:08:44.767Z
And another interesting topic: more than 30 years ago, in mainland China (PRC), `同志！`("Comrade!") was the all-purpose term for anyone, men or women, old or young -- it is so convenient that I don't know why there isn't a similar term with the same function now.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T06:13:23.417Z
@Stan: I also feel 先生 is a bit unfit for same age young person. I heard 同志 now become a derogatory slang for homosexual. Btw, how about 兄弟 (Xiōngdì) or 阿哥 (Ā gē) or maybe 同事 (Tóngshì) for alternative of 先生 ?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T07:14:35.560Z
@suud in the situation, 兄弟 and 阿哥 sound very strange at least in Mandarin Chinese. 同事 is for colleagues, workmates, never use it to a stranger. And for 同志, yes it's for homosexual, but it's not derogatory. Avoid it only because its "homosexual" meaning would cause misunderstanding.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T07:58:21.293Z
If you don't address them... then "ㄝ(eh)! 你的皮包啊!"
amateur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:34:21.917Z
@amateur: Just a tip for your English, we never say "a slang", that sounds kind of like "an information" to us, grammatically wrong. I'll copyedit your English for you here.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T05:00:40.390Z
2014-02-17T09:36:04.753Z
2014-02-17T09:36:04.753Z
amateur
<p>Before the '90s, 同志 (comrade) was a popular term that was fine to call others, both man and woman. But after Hong Kongers started to use it for another meaning (gay/lesbian), we stopped using it most of the time.</p>

<p>Now we can use 先生 (sir), 小伙子 (young fellow), 帅哥 (handsome man), 朋友 (mate), 小姐 (miss), 美女 (beauty).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T01:42:33.753Z
@hippietrail, thanks to help and edit my answer, and made it more readable. But since you are appear everywhere in this forum (almost in every question and every answer, OMG). The big face in avatar make me annoying, could you please change it to others, and just make your face smaller?
Bill
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T01:56:12.207Z
Haha don't worry, my three months learning Chinese in China and Taiwan is ending in a few days and I'll be in Japan or the Philippines learning a new language instead of focussing on Chinese, so my avatar will get less common here naturally pretty quickly (-:
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T02:15:25.553Z
That's fine. I have to re-edit my answer one by one to remove your avatar out of my answer.
Bill
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T08:04:13.650Z
2014-02-18T02:27:38.927Z
2014-02-18T02:27:38.927Z
Bill
<p>I think good old 你好 makes a very nice general-purpose way to get people's attention. It's not super-polite but it's not impolite either, and you can generally say it to any stranger to get their attention.</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure it's ideal for the situation you describe, especially as you don't really have to think about it before blurting it out.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-24T05:10:29.457Z
but ins't it weird to shout 你好 in this case? I think 你好 is more fit in situation when both person are faced each other or in very close proximity.
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-24T05:27:03.237Z
@suud No it's not weird at all. It's like calling out "Hey! Excuse me!" in English. You're trying to get their attention, and 你好 can definitely be used for that.
MHG
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-21T04:20:38.400Z
2014-02-21T04:20:38.400Z
MHG
<p>For example, you are a 20 year old male/female. You are walking on the street, then you see a male stranger who seems to be the same age as your. He is in hurry, you see him drop his wallet. You pick up the wallet and want to give back the wallet to the person. He is walking quite fast and the street is quite crowded, so there is no way to approach him and pat him saying "对不起，你的钱包掉了" (excuse me, you dropped your wallet). You don't want to let him out of your sight, so you decide to shout to him "sir! you dropped your wallet!". How to say that in Chinese?</p>

<p>Can we use 同伴 or 同学 to address him? (eg: 同伴！你的钱包掉了！)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:03:56.667Z
Just on a point of English, we normally don't use purse for a male, purse is considered feminine. We typically use wallet. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wallet
going
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:19:30.930Z
This is an interesting question. As a native speaker, when running into this situation, I am also struggling for searching a suitable word in my mind -- 1) 同伴 is not suitable for an unknown person. 2) 同学 is OK if he's young enough to be a student **AND** at an approximate age as yours. It sounds generation-after-80s styled. 3) 先生/女士 is formal, but sounds too formal to me. Anyway, I'm glad to see if there's a good answer, although this question would be a little opinion-based (hmm I'm not the down voter).
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:22:00.133Z
@Stan - I would probably go with 小姐 or 大哥 if they were around my age. Even if a few years younger. What do you think?
going
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:27:00.383Z
BTW, there're three problems in the sentence `对不起， 你的钱包跌下来`: 1) you haven't done anything wrong, you needn't say "对不起"; 2) you needn't put a space after a Chinese comma, i.e. it should be `起，你` not `起， 你`; 3) `你的钱包跌下来` sounds strange, `你的钱包掉了` is more clear.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:32:54.050Z
@xiaohouzi79 That's OK. But 小姐 is not recommended, as this word is often referred to prostitutes now, some ladies would feel uncomfortable. That's why I'm struggling on this problem too ...
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:41:17.210Z
BTW again, 帅哥/美女 (靓仔/靓女 in Cantonese) is a popular option. But it sounds a little flippant, light-minded to me.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T03:48:03.547Z
@Stan: 对不起 means "excuse me" in the sentence. Is there better translation for "excuse me" in this case?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T04:01:16.950Z
@suud I understand :) When you need help or you want to do something that will bother someone, "excuse me" and "对不起(打扰一下)" are both natural in English and Chinese. But in the situation of this question, "对不起" or any other similar expression sounds *too* polite, we just seldom use that in Chinese.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T05:21:19.323Z
@stan: in that case, what would you say to attract the person's attention?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T05:46:03.000Z
@suud like in amateur's answer, I would say `喂！` or `嘿！`.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T06:06:41.967Z
thx all. Just a bit of intermezzo, in case one of you understand hokkien, for same situation in the question, what would you say in hokkien language?
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T07:45:50.783Z
Depending on the stranger's speed and attention (they were absent-minded enough to drop their wallet after all) they may not react to neutral calls - your best bet, though potentially a _severe_ breach of etiquette, might be to quickly look inside the wallet for an ID and (trying) to call them by name
Tobias Kienzler
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:27:50.040Z
In a situation like this I can't imagine a young person in any English speaking country who would address another young person as "sir". In fact all the options I can think of sound either regional or slang or both: "bud", "buddy", "dude", "man", "mate". An option in English is just to omit the [term of address](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_address) and say "hey", "hey there", etc.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:53:05.293Z
@hippietrail: the reason I used "sir" instead of some slang words like "bro" or "dude" because I don't want people get distracted because of it. In this case, is "老兄" (Lǎoxiōng) applicable too? :D
null
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-17T09:55:14.617Z
Yes it's tricky because in avoiding sounding too informal we sound too formal! It's really hard to find a neutral term, at least for the current generation.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-27T06:03:29.970Z
@suud Hokkien people will say 先生.
user3992
<word-choice><expressions><word-requests><terms-of-address>
What's the title for addressing an unknown young person the same age as you?
# What's the title for addressing an unknown young person the same age as you?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-02-17)

For example, you are a 20 year old male/female. You are walking on the street, then you see a male stranger who seems to be the same age as your. He is in hurry, you see him drop his wallet. You pick up the wallet and want to give back the wallet to the person. He is walking quite fast and the street is quite crowded, so there is no way to approach him and pat him saying "对不起，你的钱包掉了" (excuse me, you dropped your wallet). You don't want to let him out of your sight, so you decide to shout to him "sir! you dropped your wallet!". How to say that in Chinese?

Can we use 同伴 or 同学 to address him? (eg: 同伴！你的钱包掉了！)

**Tags:** word-choice, expressions, word-requests, terms-of-address

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Just on a point of English, we normally don't use purse for a male, purse is considered feminine. We typically use wallet. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wallet  
> **username_2**: This is an interesting question. As a native speaker, when running into this situation, I am also struggling for searching a suitable word in my mind -- 1) 同伴 is not suitable for an unknown person. 2) 同学 is OK if he's young enough to be a student **AND** at an approximate age as yours. It sounds generation-after-80s styled. 3) 先生/女士 is formal, but sounds too formal to me. Anyway, I'm glad to see if there's a good answer, although this question would be a little opinion-based (hmm I'm not the down voter).  
> **username_1**: @username_2 - I would probably go with 小姐 or 大哥 if they were around my age. Even if a few years younger. What do you think?  
> **username_2**: BTW, there're three problems in the sentence `对不起， 你的钱包跌下来`: 1) you haven't done anything wrong, you needn't say "对不起"; 2) you needn't put a space after a Chinese comma, i.e. it should be `起，你` not `起， 你`; 3) `你的钱包跌下来` sounds strange, `你的钱包掉了` is more clear.  
> **username_2**: @xiaohouzi79 That's OK. But 小姐 is not recommended, as this word is often referred to prostitutes now, some ladies would feel uncomfortable. That's why I'm struggling on this problem too ...  
> **username_2**: BTW again, 帅哥/美女 (靓仔/靓女 in Cantonese) is a popular option. But it sounds a little flippant, light-minded to me.  
> **username_0**: @username_2: 对不起 means "excuse me" in the sentence. Is there better translation for "excuse me" in this case?  
> **username_2**: @suud I understand :) When you need help or you want to do something that will bother someone, "excuse me" and "对不起(打扰一下)" are both natural in English and Chinese. But in the situation of this question, "对不起" or any other similar expression sounds *too* polite, we just seldom use that in Chinese.  
> **username_0**: @username_2: in that case, what would you say to attract the person's attention?  
> **username_2**: @suud like in username_7's answer, I would say `喂！` or `嘿！`.  
> **username_0**: thx all. Just a bit of intermezzo, in case one of you understand hokkien, for same situation in the question, what would you say in hokkien language?  
> **username_3**: Depending on the stranger's speed and attention (they were absent-minded enough to drop their wallet after all) they may not react to neutral calls - your best bet, though potentially a _severe_ breach of etiquette, might be to quickly look inside the wallet for an ID and (trying) to call them by name  
> **username_4**: In a situation like this I can't imagine a young person in any English speaking country who would address another young person as "sir". In fact all the options I can think of sound either regional or slang or both: "bud", "buddy", "dude", "man", "mate". An option in English is just to omit the [term of address](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/term_of_address) and say "hey", "hey there", etc.  
> **username_0**: @username_4: the reason I used "sir" instead of some slang words like "bro" or "dude" because I don't want people get distracted because of it. In this case, is "老兄" (Lǎoxiōng) applicable too? :D  
> **username_4**: Yes it's tricky because in avoiding sounding too informal we sound too formal! It's really hard to find a neutral term, at least for the current generation.  
> **username_5**: @suud Hokkien people will say 先生.  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-02-17. Score: 5

In my opinion, if you are adult and the person who droppd wallet is:

1. younger than 11, you can call him or her "小朋友";
2. at the age of 11 to 18, you can call him or her "同学";
3. at the age of 18 to 24, you can call him "同学", "帅哥(cool man)", and call her "同学", "美女(beautiful girl)";
4. at the age of 24 to 35, you can call him "帅哥", and call her "美女";
5. older than 30, it really depend on your age and the person's age. For example, the person is 42, and you are 23, you can call him "叔叔(uncle)", and call her "阿姨(aunt)".

However, you can call the person who dressed very fashionably "帅哥","美女", eventhough he(she) is older than 35.

In addition, I think the person will usually stop walking, if you shout "喂，你的钱包掉了！(Hey, You dropped your wallet.)"

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Is it really ok to use 同学 for stranger? As I just realized it's more for schoolmate. How about 同事?  
> **username_7**: 帅哥 and 美女 is kinda creepy.  
> **username_6**: @suud It is ok to use "同学", if the guy is young. "同事" is not appropriate, and usually be used to address colleague.  
> **username_6**: @username_7 I think it's ok. I often use it, and nobody shows they dislike the appellation.  
> **username_6**: @suud "同学，你+掉了": 47,100,000 google search results; "帅哥，你+掉了": 15,200,000 google search results; "美女，你+掉了": 53,700,000 google search results  
> **username_4**: +1 for "Hey, You dropped your wallet!"  
> **username_7**: Is it not creepy for a foreigner to say to a stranger   帅哥 or 美女? Likewise, it's strange to hear 大哥 (boss). These don't seem appropriate. And 同学 doesn't seem right unless you're from the same school (in uniform). It also sounds like something from communist times. I guess if you really had to... maybe 老兄? (buddy, pal). If a woman is younger.. maybe 小妹.  
> **username_8**: username_7 has a point.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2014-02-17. Score: 2

You would shout:

喂！喂！先生! 你掉了钱包!

(Wèi! Wèi! Xiānshēng! Nǐ diào le qiánbāo!)

Hey! Hey! Sir! You dropped your wallet!

喂 is important to attract attention.

**Note:** Never use 小姐 (xiǎo jiě) to address a mainland Chinese woman. This has developed into a derogatory slang term meaning "slut" in mainland China (referring to those who work in hostess bars). It's only OK to use in Taiwan where it retains the original meaning "Miss". It's also OK in other dialects such as Cantonese. Remember, this term is no longer OK in Mandarin usage in China.

If you need to address a woman in China, call her 大姐 (dà jiě).

**Extra:** 同伴 (partner) is weird. Don't use it. It's like "Hey, comrade!". 同学 would be OK if you're from the same school, otherwise it's awkward. Better stick with 先生. I would advise against using 大哥 as it sounds gangsterish and uncouth.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for your answer. Like username_2 said, 先生 (Xiānshēng) sounds too formal although it's acceptable, especially when you address to same age young male. Is there less formal alternative to 先生?  
> **username_7**: It's not too formal. Don't think of it as actually "Sir vs. Ma'am". It's just a way to identify a man vs. woman.  
> **username_2**: 1) to @suud: For the "先生" issue, I just said "to me", it's subjective. 2) to username_7: For the "大姐" issue, I think *young* ladies won't be happy to hear others call them like that; 3) For the "大哥" issue, I think it's a regional problem. If you use it in northern China, it sounds quite natural but in contrast 先生 would sound unnatural -- only waiters, civil servants or some other people with special identity would **often** use 先生 in some special circumstance.  
> **username_2**: And another interesting topic: more than 30 years ago, in mainland China (PRC), `同志！`("Comrade!") was the all-purpose term for anyone, men or women, old or young -- it is so convenient that I don't know why there isn't a similar term with the same function now.  
> **username_0**: @username_2: I also feel 先生 is a bit unfit for same age young person. I heard 同志 now become a derogatory slang for homosexual. Btw, how about 兄弟 (Xiōngdì) or 阿哥 (Ā gē) or maybe 同事 (Tóngshì) for alternative of 先生 ?  
> **username_2**: @suud in the situation, 兄弟 and 阿哥 sound very strange at least in Mandarin Chinese. 同事 is for colleagues, workmates, never use it to a stranger. And for 同志, yes it's for homosexual, but it's not derogatory. Avoid it only because its "homosexual" meaning would cause misunderstanding.  
> **username_7**: If you don't address them... then "ㄝ(eh)! 你的皮包啊!"  
> **username_4**: @username_7: Just a tip for your English, we never say "a slang", that sounds kind of like "an information" to us, grammatically wrong. I'll copyedit your English for you here.  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2014-02-17. Score: 2

Before the '90s, 同志 (comrade) was a popular term that was fine to call others, both man and woman. But after Hong Kongers started to use it for another meaning (gay/lesbian), we stopped using it most of the time.

Now we can use 先生 (sir), 小伙子 (young fellow), 帅哥 (handsome man), 朋友 (mate), 小姐 (miss), 美女 (beauty).

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: @username_4, thanks to help and edit my answer, and made it more readable. But since you are appear everywhere in this forum (almost in every question and every answer, OMG). The big face in avatar make me annoying, could you please change it to others, and just make your face smaller?  
> **username_4**: Haha don't worry, my three months learning Chinese in China and Taiwan is ending in a few days and I'll be in Japan or the Philippines learning a new language instead of focussing on Chinese, so my avatar will get less common here naturally pretty quickly (-:  
> **username_9**: That's fine. I have to re-edit my answer one by one to remove your avatar out of my answer.  

---

### Answer by username_10 on 2014-02-21. Score: 1

I think good old 你好 makes a very nice general-purpose way to get people's attention. It's not super-polite but it's not impolite either, and you can generally say it to any stranger to get their attention.

I'm pretty sure it's ideal for the situation you describe, especially as you don't really have to think about it before blurting it out.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: but ins't it weird to shout 你好 in this case? I think 你好 is more fit in situation when both person are faced each other or in very close proximity.  
> **username_10**: @suud No it's not weird at all. It's like calling out "Hey! Excuse me!" in English. You're trying to get their attention, and 你好 can definitely be used for that.  

---

