How to turn to an unknown lady in Russia? There is no universal appeal: girl, woman, lady, young lady - everyone uses these and other options in accordance with their own taste. For foreigners, things are somewhat better with this: fröken and fru in Sweden, Froligne and frau in Germany, senior and senior in Spain, mademoiselle and madame in France, miss and Mrs. in English-speaking countries - England, USA, Australia, Canada and several others. It seems that there is not much difference between these words. Nevertheless, there are nuances that are not known to everyone.
It would seem, why so strictly separate Mrs and Miss? The difference is in two letters, and a lot of questions arise. What is the best way to turn to an unknown lady? A large number of doubts arise if the matter does not concern personal communication, but business correspondence.
The difference between Miss and Mrs is that the first appeal applies to unfamiliar young and unmarried women, while the second only applies to married and widowed women. "Mrs." can be called a lady of an older age, if there is no certainty in her marital status.
When a surname is added to the appeal, you need to carefully choose between "Mrs." and "Miss." The difference is the same - marital status. However, in this case, the ladies are a little more likely to be offended if they say “Mrs.” to an unmarried woman. Therefore, in case of any doubt, it is better to use the "girlish" option. In an extreme case, you can apologize and make some nice compliment.
As for business correspondence, here things have long been easier, since the neutral version of "Ms" is increasingly being used, which does not focus on the marital status of the interlocutor. Although in some
cases, which will be discussed a little later, in official letters also “miss” and “Mrs.” are used. There is a difference here, although in the general case the neutral "Ms." is used. or "Ms" - the presence or absence of a point depends on whether correspondence is being maintained with a European or an American.
Nevertheless, in some cases, in a business letter, marital status can and should be emphasized. This is done, for example, in official invitations to some events, when they are intended
the whole family. Then comes the listing: Mr, Mrs and Miss, if we are talking about a man, his wife and daughter. Obviously, in such cases, the use of neutral treatment is absolutely inappropriate, namely “Mrs.” and “Miss.” The difference between this and other cases is that here emphasizing the relationship and the marital status of the ladies is absolutely natural.
But perhaps in the future and in these cases something neutral will be used, since in Europe feminist sentiments are raging. Women are not inclined to advertise their marital status, therefore they consider the use of individual appeals to married and unmarried ladies to be sexism. Last year in France it was already forbidden to use Mademoiselle in official documents, which was replaced by Madame.
So, in the appeals of “Mrs.” and “Miss, ” the difference is still quite large. And this is not a matter of marital status, but, rather, in relation to those around him. In the future, perhaps, there will still be one thing not only in business correspondence, but also in personal communication, but for now it remains to puzzle over which word is still better to use.
