Ms, Mrs or Miss, and why you don’t need to know

Before you sent a two-line email, you went looking for clues. Mrs or Miss. Her LinkedIn photo was not helping.

It’s a small thing that stops you for a minute. Getting it wrong feels rude, and there’s no polite way to ask. So you sit there doing research for a message about a meeting room.

English has a way out of this, and it’s been there for years. Ms. It says nothing about whether she’s married, which is exactly why it works.

You are allowed not to know. Her marital status is not information you need to write to her about Thursday.

And it’s pronounced „mizz„, not „miss„.

Quick win: When you don’t know, write Ms. It’s the normal choice in business English.