English in Use Adressing People

1. Study the following forms of address.

When addressing people in English, we use Mr./Mrs./Miss followed by the surname:

Mr. ['mıstə] Brown – to a man;

Mrs. ['mısız] Brown – to a married woman;

Miss ['mıs] Brown – to a girl or unmarried woman.

Other forms of address are:

Sir – used to a man who is clearly older than oneself.

Professor – used either with or without the surname, depending on how formal or informal one wishes to be (Simply Professor is more formal).

Mrs or Miss (Brown) – used when addressing women-teachers.

Ladies and Gentlemen – to an audience.

Mr. or Madam Chairman – to the chairman of a meeting.

Waiter / Waitress / Porter / Nurse etc. – to people in certain occupations. Now people simply try to catch the waiter’s eyes, for example, or say Excuse me, (please).

Officer – to a policeman.

2. Choose the best answer.

1) When you address a middle-aged whose name you do not know, you say:

a) Mister; b) Sir; c) Officer.

2) If you want to address an eminent British scientist (Doctor John Lonsdale), you say:

a) Mr. Lonsdale; b) Dr. Lonsdale; c) John.

3) If you want to address a visiting English teacher Helen Parker (unmarried), you call her:

a) Helen; b) Miss Helen; c) Miss Parker.

Getting Acquainted with People

1. Read and translate the following dialogues making use of the Word List below.

1. – Let me introduce myself to you. I am Olga Bilyk.

– How do you do, Miss Bilyk. My name is Bill Porter.

• How do you do, Mr. Porter. I am a teacher of English. And what are you? (What is your trade?)

• I am a college instructor.

• Pleased to know you, Mr. Porter.

• Glad to get acquainted with you, Miss Bilyk.

– Mr. Jones, this is Mr. Brown.

• We’ve met before, haven’t we?

• Sure. We played a game of tennis the other day.

• And you won the game.

• That’s right.

– Allow me to introduce John Clark to you, Mr. Smith.

• How do you do, Mr. Smith. Nice to meet you.

• How do you do, Mr. Clark. Pleased to know you. How do you like this city?

• I like it very much, though I haven’t seen much of it.

• I can help you. We’ll make a car tour of the city one of the days.

• It will be great!

Word List

1. What are you? = What is your trade? – Хто ви за фахом?

2. Glad to get acquainted with you. – Приємно з вами познайомитись.

3. I haven’t seen much of it. – Я ще небагато бачив (у місті).

4. We’ll make a car tour of the city. – Ми поїдемо на екскурсію по місту на машині.

5. It will be great! – Це буде чудово!

2. Practise the dialogues above and learn any two of them by heart.

3. Complete the following dialogues with suitable words or phrases from the Word List and the dialogues above.

1. – Let me ________ myself to you. I am Nick Petrenko.

– How do you do, Mr. Petrenko. I am John Bush.

• ________, Mr. Bush.

• Pleased to ________, Nick.

• ________ to get acquainted with you, John.

2. – Allow me to ________ Robert Black to you, Ms. Johnson.

• How do you do, Mr. Black?

• ________, Ms. Johnson.

• How do you like this city?

• ________, though I haven’t seen much of it.

• I’ll help you. Let’s make a tour of the city.

• ________ . Thank you, Ms. Johnson.