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Grammar Section
Names and titles: addressing people

When we talk to someone directly, we use names and titles:

Hello, John, how are you?
Professor Sana, there’s someone to see you.

When we are talking about people, we use different forms depending on our relationship with them.

We use first names only in informal situations:

A:
I saw Mel earlier today.
B:
Did you? I haven’t seen her for weeks.

We use first name + family name (surname) when we are not sure if the person we are talking to
knows who we’re talking about:
Do you know Simon Perry?
Joy Goodfellow had to go to hospital today. I’m not sure why.
We use a title (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, Prof) and the surname in more formal situations. We don’t usually
use the title alone, or the title and first name (although we sometimes use a job title):
Dr O’Donnell, can I ask you a question?
Not: Dr David, can I ask …?
Could you ask Mrs Zatta to call me when she gets back?
Not: Could you ask Mrs to call me …?

We use Mr / mɪstə(r)/ for men. We do not usually write ‘Mister’ in full. We use Mrs / mɪsɪz/ for
married women.
Ms /məz/ does not indicate if the person is married or not. Some women take on their husband’s
surname and the title Mrs when they get married. Some women prefer to keep their surname and
use the title Ms.
In formal contexts, we sometimes use Master for boys and Miss for girls.Miss also indicates single
status (not married). The use of Miss is becoming less common among younger women,
and Master now sounds old-fashioned.
Parents and grandparents
We use mother (usually formal), mum, mam, mummy (less formal) mom(American English) to talk
to a mother, and father (usually formal), dad, daddy, papa (less formal) to address a father. For a
grandmother we usegran, grandma, nana, nan, and for grandfather we use grandad, grandpa,
granpy, gramps, pops:
Mum, you’re going to be really pleased to hear this.
I can borrow your car, can’t I, Gran?
Terms of endearment
We use terms of endearment for people we are very close to or to whom we want to show affection
or friendship. They include: darling, dear, poppet (usually to a little child), love, luvvie, sweetheart.
They may combine with names:
Can you lock the car, darling?
Peter, love, could you take this to the post-box for me?
Groups of people
We use folks, guys, everyone/everybody, children, boys, lads, girls, ladies, gentlemen to address
groups. Some of these are more formal. For example, ladies and gentlemen is more formal
than folks or guys. Guys is used more and more for groups of both sexes, not just males:

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