Everytime when I fill in a form, whether it’s online or in pen and paper, there is always a field that I’m unsure of. They would often ask, how would we like to be addressed, as in Ms., Miss, Mrs., or Mr. I’m not really bothered with the Mr. or Mrs. at the moment as I clearly know that Mr. is used to identify a man, but not his marital status, whereas Mrs. is used to identify married woman.
Now the confusion for me here is the usage between Ms. and Miss. As far as I know, their pronunciation are the same, ‘miz’. Therefore, I always assumed that they are the same and thought that Ms. is the abbreviation of Miss.
How wrong I was!! I just did some research online and realised that Ms. is used instead of Miss or Mrs. when the marital status of a woman is unknown or irrelevant. Miss is used to address a girl or unmarried woman. I hope this post will help clear up some questions regarding the usage of Ms. and Miss. Now, I know what to fill up on the form next time.
8 Comments
Well, I’ve also get to know about the difference between Ms. and Miss last year only. I always thought that both are the same - jsut tha Ms. is the abbreviation of Miss.
One of my female teacher explained to me when I asked her why she call herself Ms Tan. Isn’t she married? Then she told me that some women like her, would like to use back her own surname, or what Michelle has said, “marital status of a woman is unknown or irrelevant”.
Wow, Ms and Miss really makes a big difference! :upsidedown:
Haha, I hate filling out forms - there are always fields that I leave blank because I doubt what to write in them…
I don’t think I’ve often run into the Ms./Miss problem before… but thanks for clearing things up!
Oi, can you send me a postcard of a naked woman? Thanks! (just kidding, haha!)
Haha I had to explain this to hubby a few weeks ago. He still doesn’t get it.
I never knew that. I guess I know what to use now when I have to fill out those forms. Actually, I don’t even remember seeing both before. Shows how much attention I’m paying to what I’m doing. Well, take care!
I enjoyed your site.
Ms is used when u dun realli wanna reveal whether you are a miss or a mrs..
I’ve been searching the web trying to figure out the difference, and this is the best explanation I have found thus far. Thank you!!!!!
We were having this discussion today at work. I brought it up because I am recently divorced and was curious as to whether I was now a Miss or Ms. I knew there was a difference but unsure of how to use them. Thanks for all the insight. I would think Miss would be more for the younger, unmarried. And Ms. should be for us older, divorced/wiser..lol ladies.
Thanks,
Ms. ChickN
Ahah! Thanks a lot for this clarification. I was thinking “How can I abbreviate Miss, shouldn’t it be Ms?” but now I am going to spend two more letters on it…
Painful.