Situated in the field of Ethnography of communication, this paper explores politeness strategies in two different languages, namely French and Yoruba, with a particular focus on the use of honorific pronouns. On the basis of recorded data and observation notes from 10 native and non-native speakers, it is shown that both languages use honorifics to express politeness. However, French has only one honorific pronoun whereas Yoruba has four. Moreover, while in French the non-honorific pronoun is also legitimate in greetings among interlocutors who share some degree of familiarity, this is not equally possible in the Yoruba context.