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I'm writing a letter to several recipients in the same document and want to address them correctly at the start.

Is the following correct (I suspect not) and if not, what should it be:

Dear Mr's Jones, Smith, Bloggs and Flintstone

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The plural form of Mister is Misters, and the abbreviations Mr. and Messrs. respectively (although UK English drops the periods). The odd spelling is because "Messrs." comes from the French "messieurs". So your example would be phrased as:

Dear Messrs. Jones, Smith, Bloggs, and Flintstone

The abbreviation for addressing more than one Ms. is either "Mses."or "Mss."; note that the abbreviation "Mmes." (from the French "mesdames") is used for the pural of "Mrs."

If it's mixed between two genders, use the appropriate honorific for each set and join them with "and". So for instance:

Dear Ms. Smith and Messrs. Jones, Bloggs, and Flintstone

For addressing a married couple with the same surname, a variant may be employed.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith

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  • I looked at that and wasn't sure if the Messrs abbreviation was archaic or not. Thanks for the pointer.
    – Phil.Wheeler
    Jan 22, 2012 at 21:03
  • "Messrs." is also written as "M/s."; may be not in all versions of English.
    – Kris
    Jan 23, 2012 at 4:58

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