What phrases are considered polite for formal situations in Russian

In formal Russian situations, polite phrases typically include respectful greetings, phrases emphasizing humility, and polite requests or addressing others with proper titles. Common polite phrases for formal contexts include:

• Здравствуйте (Hello, formal greeting)
• Добрый день (Good day)
• Будьте добры (Please, literally “be kind”)
• Прошу вас (I ask you, polite form of request)
• Извините, пожалуйста (Excuse me, please)
• Позвольте представить (Allow me to introduce)
• Using formal pronouns Вы instead of informal ты to address others
• Addressing by title and last name, e.g., Господин Иванов (Mr. Ivanov), Госпожа Петрова (Ms. Petrova)
• Спасибо за уделённое время (Thank you for your time)
• Буду признателен (I would be grateful)

These phrases reflect proper etiquette, respect, and formality in Russian communication. Politeness in Russian often involves verb forms showing respect and the use of courteous formulas in greetings, requests, and farewells, adapted to the social context and relationship between speakers. ^{1, 2, 6}

Thus, in formal Russian interactions, it is important to use respectful greetings, polite requests, and titles, combined with the formal “Вы” pronoun to convey politeness.

References

• Formal and Informal Russian Invitation: Context and Politeness Strategies

• The Use of English, Russian and Tatar Etiquette Words and Expressions in Speech Situations of Greeting and Farewell

• Friendliness in Russian linguistic worldview

• Russian Particle Prosto (‘Simply’): the Expantion of Functions

• ‘Official Tears’: Signs of Sociocultural Type ‘Official’ According to the National Corpus of the Russian Language

• Forms of Address and their Meaning in Contrast in Polish and Russian Languages

• WAYS TO EXPLICATE COURTESY PRINCIPLES IN THE CHUVASH, MARI, RUSSIAN AND FRENCH LANGUAGES

• Russian Official Reflection in Russian Language Winged Units

• Professional Idioms in a Practical Course of Russian Language for Foreigners (based on the Language of Medicine)

• Linguistic Features of Russian Phraseological Units Expressing the Emotional State of a Person

• Politeness as a feature: so important and so rare.

• TyDiP: A Dataset for Politeness Classification in Nine Typologically Diverse Languages

• Comparing Styles across Languages: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Politeness

• Structural and pragmatic aspects of the speech genre “treating to a meal”

• The means of expressing the category of politeness in medical discourse (On the material of the doctor and patient speech communication)