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Henry74 Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary
Best man - maid of honor
Hi,
I have a couple of questions related to weddings. Can you please help me?
1) Can the bride chose a guy instead of a girl? If so, would he still be called "best man"? Conversly, can a guy chose a girl? Would she still be called "maid of honor"?
2) In my language we have a word that refers to either the best man or the maid of honor regardless of their sex. Sort of like "sibling" for either brother or sister. We call him or her a "witness". They are the people who co-sign the marriage certificate.
It's normally two people, but it can also be four or more.
So in my language we could ask a question like "How many 'witnesses' did you have at your wedding?".
Is there a corresponding word in English? If not, how would a question like that one be phrased, "How many best men and maids of honor did you have at your wedding?"?
Thank you
H.
I have a couple of questions related to weddings. Can you please help me?
1) Can the bride chose a guy instead of a girl? If so, would he still be called "best man"? Conversly, can a guy chose a girl? Would she still be called "maid of honor"?
2) In my language we have a word that refers to either the best man or the maid of honor regardless of their sex. Sort of like "sibling" for either brother or sister. We call him or her a "witness". They are the people who co-sign the marriage certificate.
It's normally two people, but it can also be four or more.
So in my language we could ask a question like "How many 'witnesses' did you have at your wedding?".
Is there a corresponding word in English? If not, how would a question like that one be phrased, "How many best men and maids of honor did you have at your wedding?"?
Thank you
H.
Top answer
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6 Answers
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If you use "maid/matron of honor" and "best man", you have only one of each. You can have as many "attendants" as you want (as khoff has mentioned). Most places in the US require two witnesses to sign the affidavit, and they are usually the best man and the maid/matron of honor.
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Thank you khoff and Philip.
May I ask about my question #1?
I remember a movie where the bride chose a man instead of a woman, and another character said "So he's going to be your best man."
I'm guessing "best man" refers to the fact that the person is a man regardless of whom he's being a witness for, not to the fact that he's being a witness for the man in the couple.
May I ask about my question #1?
I remember a movie where the bride chose a man instead of a woman, and another character said "So he's going to be your best man."
I'm guessing "best man" refers to the fact that the person is a man regardless of whom he's being a witness for, not to the fact that he's being a witness for the man in the couple.
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Even though this situation occurred in a movie, I think we are dealing with a purely hypothetical situation. What did they call the person in the movie? If a situation is going against the norm, the people involved can call it whatever they want.
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I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. In big, formal weddings in the US, the bride's attendants are all women, including the maid/matron of honor, and the groom's attendants are all men, including the best man. The bride would generally pick her attendants, and the groom, his attendants. However, say the groom has no siblings or close friends, and the bride has a huge family, then there
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