| Relationship | Formal | Informal | Used With |
| Distant (higher status) | goo | fur | last name |
| Distant (lower status) | kiat | frii | last name |
| Distant (equal status) | krun | sai | last name |
| Equal status | sru | miih | first name |
| Affectionate | hii | lu | first name or alone |
| Diminuitive | ku | puar | first name or alone |
| Strangers | too | lom | alone |
The higher-status honorific is used when addressing or referring to persons who have an institutionalized higher position than oneself - students to teachers, employees to employers, laypersons to clergy, etc. If two people have no official relationship with each other (regardless of the position of each in any irrelevant social contexts - e.g. the president of an organization and a nonmember) then the higher-status honorific is never used. The lower-status honorific is exclusively when the higher-status honorific would be used in the other direction.
The distnt equal-status honorific is used when two persons have an equal but not close or friendly relationship with one another - that is, they know each other's names and interact but may not be friends. For example, classmates, co-workers, neighbors who don't know one another well, and anyone recently introduced use this honorific with each other.
The equal-status honorific is used similarly to the distant equal-status honorific, but in relationships where the parties are friendly with each other or at least very well acquainted. The speed with which people switch to these honorifics varies widely, but its use is not generally considered threatening or intrusive, so as soon as one party switches the other usually immediately follows suit as a form of accomodation unless it is abnormally quick (less than two days after being introduced, usually, is seen as excessively rapid transition).
The affectionate honorific is used between family members and very close friends or romantic partners. It can be used alone (this is the equivalent of calling someone "dear", "honey," "sweetie", etc. although with a broader application than these English terms) or with a first name (Nlaaki-speaking family members do not address each other by family relationships). Switching with a friend or romantic partner from the equal-status honorific to the affectionate honorific is an extremely delicate transition generally not undertaken until the people have been good friends for over a year or romantically involved for about ten months (the latter time is shortened quite a bit if the persons in question move in with each other and is automatically used following marriage regardless of how soon after commencement of the relationship that event takes place). It is interesting to note that when friends who already use the affectionate honorific with each other revert to the equal status honorific if they begin to be romantically involved, but switch back to the affectionate honorific if they split up on good terms and resume their original friendship, or after several weeks of dating.
The diminuitive honorific is used by itself or with a first name, and it's employed with pets, other people's small children (not one's own, with whom one uses the affectionate honorific), and anyone or anything one wishes to address in a "cute" or possibly patronizing manner. Children generally begin to object to its usage at about the age of six and by the time they reach the age of eight few people continue in its use. Using it with anyone over that age is offensive to say the least unless it is made explicit that it is being used in jest or teasing, and even in that case many people dislike being addressed with it.
The strangers honorific is used exclusively with people whose names one does not know. It is the equivalent of calling someone "sir/ma'am" or "hey you" depending on the tone and situation, and if there is any anticipation of a continued interaction its use usually prompts the addressee to supply a name.
The formal and informal versions of each honorific are dependent solely on context, not the relationship between two persons. In settings such as work, school, in classy locations like expensive restaurants or the theater, and at formal events, one uses the formal version of the honorific; in a meeting at any more downscale location, at home, or during a chance meeting in the street, one uses the informal version. This is regardless of the actual honorific set being used; diminuitives, stranger honorifics, and affectionate honorifics are switched just as much as the others and are not perceived to lose any of their intimacy or meaning in this transition.