How do pupils address a female high school teacher?

You may see Ms (it’s meant to not signal to one’s marital status) it is pronounced with almost a Z sound after the M

For Americans, Miss is for unmarried young women, Mrs. (“Missus”) is for married, Ms. (Miz) is for women who are divorced, widowed, etc. Many people mistake Ms. for Miss due to similar pronunciations, so I imagine that’s where some of these answers saying “it’s always Miss” come from. Also may be a culture thing.

I would say "Miss," but written down it would *always* be spelled "Ms" As far as I understand, the rule is Miss = unmarried, Mrs = married, Ms = marital status not assumed/irrelevant. "Miss" and "Ms" are pronounced the same, while "Mrs" is pronounced "Missus" Edit: This is as an American in NC

If you teach in a title 1 school, it's always miss or mister for teachers.

Grew up in the South of the US, and my children were of school age mostly in the South as well. "Miss" was the way to go.

In my school (US), 99.9% of the time female teachers are addressed by students as “Miss” (spelled “Ms.”). Age & marital status are irrelevant. Male teachers are “Mister”. Surnames are not used.

Canadian - Mrs. (last name) or depending on the teacher (if they're really chill) then just their last name

In the UK. When I was in primary school (4-11) we addrssed the teacher by their Title and surname EG Miss Smith Mrs Smith Dr Smith Mr Smith In secondary school (11-16) we addressed them by Sir or Miss. Regardless of their marital status. And occasionally by their Title and Surname if needing to distinguish between several teachers.

Yes, ma’am was used almost exclusively to address the late Queen. In almost no other context in the UK, the exceptions being military and the police force, I believe. ‘Miss’ for any female school teacher, as everyone else has said, but also to note - in very formal situations, the full ‘madam’ is used to address women. I’ve only heard this used myself in very traditional, old fashioned shops and restaurants, but it is still said. Never ‘ma’am’.

However she introduces herself on the first day of class

It's still "miss"

If you know she’s married, it’s *Mrs.*, pronounced “Missez.” If you don’t know whether she’s married, the correct honorific is *Ms.*, pronounced “Mizz.” You can still use “Miss” for an older unmarried woman, but I understand why you wouldn’t want to. You can use *Ms.* in that situation too.

If she is married you call her Mrs. If you don’t know, Ms. if she’s for sure unmarried Miss. I tend to just call them all Miss tbh.

In the U.K., it’s always “Miss”. Unless you’re using their full name, of course, then you’d use e.g. “Mrs Brown” or “Ms White”. But in a classroom, it’s more usual just to say “Miss”.

if shes married youll probably call her mrs, if shes not shes ms. its a function of what she calls herself on the first day of class and no one ever questions it. this is coming from america fwiw maybe worth pointing out that "miss" as a second person pronoun and "ms." as an honorific feel like different words from where im sitting. "hello miss" and "hello ms. simmons" could not resonate more differently

in the US, when i was a kid (80s/90s) it was usually Miss Lastname or Mrs Lastname. married women teachers were usually Mrs Ms. wasn't as common back then, but it might be more common now

English, was in secondary school (not high school!) between 2009 and 2014, 2016 if you include sixth form "Miss" is still the general term. In some languages it doesn't scan – I know our German teacher told us off for using *fraulein* – but it is still the way you get a female teacher's attention, acknowledge her etc Miss for female teachers, sir for male teachers, both often said with a distinctly whiney tone and dragged out into three syllables if you're trying to get their attention (*miiiiss, siiiiir*)

For me in US, it was Mrs. ("missus") \[name\].

My kids call their women teachers Mrs. Ms. or Dr. LastName. If a woman teaches at the college level sometimes it’s Professor LastName.

All the female teachers were "miss". Didn't matter their age or marital status.

Ma'am, or by her name.  Miss would be seen as diminutive or rude for an authority figure of any age in the USA.

You can say Ms. [Mz.] Instead of Mrs. or Miss. It is actually often preferred because it does not change with marriage like Miss and Mrs.

In England Miss because she is a school mistress. In Scotland use mizz plus her surname I believe but check with a scot. Welsh English language schools follow the English model l. I have no idea about America I think it's regional and Irish people will have to speak for themselves

Canadian here, if I know she's married: Mrs. [last name]. If unmarried or not sure: Ms. [last name]. "Miss" is technically correct if you know she's unmarried but can feel juvenile (at least in my region) so if she's an adult, we tend to default to "Ms." (same pronunciation). Also, if you don't know (or want) to use the last name, we just say "Ms." even if married. In my region, "missus" on its own can feel a little disrespectful, and we don't use "ma'am."

Ms. Last name. It started in the 70's in USA and received a lot of blow back from men. Then "Ms. Magazine" came out with feminist articles.

Where I live in the US, I would always use "Ms." (pronounced "m" + "is"). I would not call someone Miss or Mrs. unless I absolutely knew whether they were married.

Miss.

Australian perspective. Miss works by itself. Saying Mrs or Ms is only okay when followed by their last name; saying them on their own would sound very peculiar

It depends if you're using their last name or not. If you know she's married, you can call her "Mrs. Smith" or "Ms. Smith". But to get her attention, without using her last name, you wouldn't say "Excuse me, Mrs." or Excuse me, Ms." It's still always "Excuse me, Miss." It's like Sir. We'd say "Mr. Smith" and never "Sir Smith." But we say "excuse me Sir.

Always either Miss last name or Mrs. Last name depending on marital status when I was a kid. You would be corrected if you used the wrong one. My younger siblings tend to call a lot of their teachers Miss first name so I wonder if this is changing

US would either be Ms or Mrs. Ms is theoretically pronounced in isolation with a voiced "z" as opposed to an unvoiced "s", but which sound is used actually varies by accent and the surrounding sounds so in practice, the distinction is mostly in writing.  An unmarried female teacher would either be Miss or Ms in the US. 

In my part of the US "Miss" is basically nonexistent as a form of address for any adult.

You can also use Ma’am, though it’s more of a southern word.

In the US, it's Ms. [last name] by default; in the northeast that's the most common but some prefer Mrs. and rarely you'll get Miss

At my school, it was always "hey teacher" or just "teacher", and of course sometimes "miss" or "mister"

In the U.S, it was always “Miss” for a younger unmarried woman, “Ms.” for an older unmarried woman, and, “Mrs.” for a married woman, followed by her last name. An example: “Mrs. Robinson” for a married woman

I'm from the south. We used Ms./Miz Lastname

In North America, it's generally Miss for unmarried and Mrs for married. Mrs is a contraction of Mistress, but is pronounced as "Missus". In Canada, given the bilingualism, we (in my province) sometimes also use Madame, even if they were teaching in English. The "neutral" is supposed to be Ms, which is pronounced "mihzz", but in practice usually just denotes divorced. 🤭

Growing up in the western US in the 90s, it was always, "Mrs. Smith," "Miss Johnson," "Mr. Jackson," or sometimes "teacher." I never heard anyone refer to a teacher with a standalone "miss." I've really only ever heard that for something like a store employee trying to get a customer's attention, ie: "Excuse me, miss. Can I help you?"

In the US, students do not address the teachers the same way as in the UK by calling them only Miss or Sir. In the US the teachers are called Miss (or Ms.) or Mrs. Lastname and Mr. Lastname. Only the very, very young kids in preschool have a different protocol, and it is generally Miss Firstname and Mr. Firstname. Additionally, in the US it is not common to say "yes ma'am/sir" to your teachers, except in some regions of the US south. As such, the way students address teachers here is less formal.

In the part of the US where I grew up we would say “Mrs.” for a teacher who is married and “Ms.” otherwise. For a very young, unmarried teacher or a teaching aid we might use “Miss” but normally that was avoided.

I usually use "Mrs." if I am unaware of the woman in question's marital status. Some think it can be a bit rude to call a married woman "Miss."

In the US, students would generally use “Ms. Lastname” or a shortened form/nickname. For example, Mrs. Jackson might be addressed as “Ms. J”.

In Scotland we use their name as they advise it. If they tell you its Mrs. Reid, they're Mrs. Reid, Ms. Reid, Miss Reid, Dr. Reid, Professor Reid - they will introduce themselves on day one and that is what you call them. We don't tend to use a generic address. The same goes for male teachers. Only a private school would use "sir" really.

Canada here - all female teachers were Miss and all male teachers were Sir.

It was mostly just "Miss" and "Sir" when I was at school in the 2000s. Probably just "Ms xxx" and "Mr xxx" now - that was coming in as I was leaving

For my school, in England, it's always "madam" when addressing female teachers. If I need to identify a specific teacher, then I'd use Miss or Mrs (followed by their surname).

"Ms. [Lastname]" or "Mrs. [Lastname]" are pretty standard in the US (the former for an unmarried woman, the latter for a married woman). I have occasionally seen "ma'am" or "Teacher" used, though those are less common forms of address. The former is a generic respectful term for a woman, though some people find it offensive as it indicates age (mostly in northern regions). The latter is treated as a sort of professional title, but I've found that it's used less readily than "Professor" is at higher levels.

In my part of the US it was always just “Mrs/miss lastname” or “teacher” or just calling their lastname with no honorific

In the US K-12 schools where I've taught (that's ages approx. 5-18), we've addressed female secondary teachers as either *Ms. _____* or *Mrs. _____*, depending on their marital status. *Miss* is typically used for non-licensed staff, like classroom aides/paraprofessionals, and non-teaching staff in areas like food service or maintenance. *Miss* is also used as a way to address a female teacher at any grade level, but only by certain demographic groups, and not with the inclusion of their last name. So, when I primarily taught Latino kids - mostly second/third/fourth generation Mexican Americans - this would sound like, "Miss, can I leave to refill my water bottle?" If they were addressed by a staff member in the hall, the same kid would say, "Mrs. K____ said it was OK to refill my water." *Miss* could be replaced by *teacher*.

Married, Mrs. (Lastname) Unmarried, Miss/Ms. (Lastname) Male, Mr. (Lastname)

I would say miss. Miss from a kid doesn’t imply anything.