addressing honorable women

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Itasan
Posts: 557
Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2003 8:22 am
Location: Yokohama, Japan

addressing honorable women

Post by Itasan » Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:23 am

When officially addressing an honorable woman,
is it always 'Her...' and not 'His...'?
1. Her Excellency Anne Jones
Ambassador of COUNTRY NAME
(never His Excellency Anne Jones?)
2. Her Grace the Duchess of PLACE NAME
(never His Grace the Duchess of...?)
Thank you.

Macavity
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:41 pm

Post by Macavity » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:14 am

Hello Itasan,
I believe so, yes. For instance we say "Her Majesty" to address the Queens of England or the Netherlands. Interestingly, however, there is a case in British English ( I don't know if this is true of other varieties of English) where a woman is sometimes addressed by her husband's name, for example "Mr and Mrs James Bond". I'm married to a German girl and she finds it very ammusing (and sometimes a little annoying :wink: ) when letters addressed to us in this way arrive from the UK .

BW
Macavity

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