Salutation

Question

How should I address two Ladies in a business letter ending Yours sincerely
they are a Mother and senior spinster daughter. My boss says Mesdames
whilst I thought Ladies or do you have any other ideas.
Many thanks

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

In the salutation, you should use their name, e.g.

Dear Mrs. and Ms. Smith:

'Mesdames' is plural for 'Mrs.', and 'Ladies' is wrong for direct address in a letter.

Guest · Answer

Sorry Mr McCawber for some reason I cannot see my first post on the forum, however, thank you for your speedy reply.
Could you further clarify the correct salutation if the letter had to include the son of this family ie mother, spinster daughter and son. My boss says it should be 'Mesdames & Mr Smith' , once again i felt it should be 'Ladies and Mr Smith'. Can you tell me why 'Ladies' is incorrect in a letter but a correct mode of verbal address at a meeting ie, 'Ladies and Gentlemen' thank you.

Mister Micawber · Answer

It is not 'Ladies' simply because we do not use that in a business salutation; there is no particular logic to it, as far as I know. Are the 'ladies' and 'gentlemen' below different from each other?--

'Ladies and Gentlemen, the next President of the United States.''
'Mesdames and Sirs, the next President of the United States.'
'Lady and Gentleman, welcome to our home.'
'Lady, get your bag off my seat!'
'Gentleman, get your bag off my seat!'
'Sir, get your bag off my seat!'
'Madam, get your bag off my seat!'
'Dear Sir'
'Dear Madam'
'Dear Lady'
'Dear Gentleman'

These epithets and many more-- Miss, girl, boy, mister-- all have their particular, traditionally acceptable uses. Misused, they can get us quizzical looks or punches in the nose, but there are no consistent rules that I am aware of except usage.

As far as your particular problem is concerned: as I said, 'mesdames' is the plural of 'madam', so would not really be appropriate if a single woman is included. However, greeting the son as well may be the camel that breaks the back of propriety, and for simplicity, I would agree to 'Mesdames and Mr.Smith', rather than suffer the even more confusing (if not misleading) 'Dear Mrs., Miss and Mr. Smith'.

Let us hope this family has finished breeding.

Guest · Answer

Many thanks for that.  Without wishing to  pursue this too much further, could I just ask you to clarify this:   If I were addressing two gentlemen and a lady( say, two brothers and a sister) all of the same address, but no parents (deceased) would I say, Gentlemen and Miss Smith or Dear Mr John Smith, Mr Fred Smith and Miss Sue Smith?  These salutation problems are driving me insane, my job requires me to write to families (often recently bereaved of one or both parents) so any help you can give is very much appreciated.  I guess as the lady I am writing to is a widow the breeding will come to natural halt!  Thanks again.

Mister Micawber · Answer

'Dear Messrs. and Ms. Smith', I suppose.

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