Personal Titles

There are 4 personal titles that are used a lot in the English language. Mr. Mrs. Miss
and Ms. In the UK, you do not use periods after the abbreviations of personal titles,
but in the USA and Canada you do use periods.

You use titles with people who are older than you or who you respect. Depending on
your work environment you may or may not call your boss by their personal title and
last name. At my job we call everyone by their first names, even the CEO of the
company. However, if you work at a school, even the teachers call each other using
their personal titles because they want the students to do the same.

Mr. is used for married and unmarried males. Mr. is followed by the last name of the
person. In mailings you can either put both the first and last name or just the last
name depending on how formal you would like to be. For young boys you can use
“Master,” but this is not the norm in the USA.
Mr. Brian Crawford (on a formal letter)
Mr. Crawford (in conversation)

Miss is used for young unmarried women.

Miss Amelia Crabtree (on a formal letter)
Miss Crabtree (in conversation)

Mrs. is used for married women or women who are old enough to be married.
Mrs. Yvonne Crawford (on a formal letter)
Mrs. Crawford (in conversation)

Ms. is a newer title for women. It’s used for when you aren’t quite sure whether or
not the person is married or not, so you can just say Ms.
Ms. Culpepper
Ms. Alexandra Culpepper
Ms. Yvonne (Like stated above, in the South, kids will call their friend’s parents by
their first name but add Ms. in front of it.)