Plural form

Hi,

What is the plural of Ms.?



No plural exists.

We don't use the term by itself,

eg We don't start a letter with Dear Ms. We always use it with a last name, eg Dear Ms Smith.



If you want to refer to two women, say

eg I met with Ms Smith and Ms Jones.



Best wishes, Clive

What do you mean by MS first explain that?

sync2009What do you mean by MS first explain that?

It's not MS. It's Ms.

The abbreviation Ms is used to mean Miss or Mrs. when you don't know whether the woman you are addressing is married (Mrs.) or not (Miss).

CJ

Random House dictionary lists the following plural forms for the salutations

• Ms. / Mses.
• Mr. / Messrs.
• Mrs. / Mmes.
• Miss / Misses
  

They are quite irregular; likely from the French basis of Mr. and Mrs.

Hi,

Hmmm, so Random House apparently thinks that people speak or write of 'the Mses Jones and Smith'. It sounds like something out of a Jane Austen parody. Let me check again to see what universe Random House lives in.

CliveOh-oh, so does thefreedictionary site. Now I'm getting worried.

Don't worry, please! The internet is an echo chamber of misinformation. Many sites just mindlessly copy from others. It's entirely possible that the freedictionary entry is a copy of the Random House entry.

I rather like the idea of the social parody though. We can take the Bennett sisters in the modern era - one takes pride in marriage and is Mrs. and one takes pride in being single (free of the opression of being enslaved by the act of marriage and proudly goes by Miss, while one married one and one single one rejoice that their difference in married state can be minimzed by being The Mses Bennett

Hi GG,

Two random thoughts.

1. This year, I preferred Miss January to Miss March.

2. Have you read the recently published novel, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'? You should.

Clive

1. I meant Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March! Sheesh!

2. No, but you are now the fourth person who has told me this and I saw a very funny news piece on the book. I'll put it on the list.

Only slightly related, I just read The Jane Austen Book Club, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was delicious.

Hi,

Have you seen the British TV show, 'Lost in Austen'?

It's about a modern young woman who accidentally swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet.

She thinks she knows all that will happen, but it all starts to go wrong, the wrong ones marry the wrong ones, etc.

Sample: In her modern life, she works as a receptionist, and makes a lousy 10,000 pounds a year.