These distinctive titles replace the standard honorifics used in polite address, indicating gender and, for women, marital status; the common English forms are Mr., Ms., Mrs. and Miss.
In some Continental European countries, all academic degrees were traditionally pre-nominal.
(Austrian master's degree (Magister) in all disciplines except engineering).
In contexts where pre-nominal academic letters are used, such degrees may be placed prenominally for consistency (for example, "MMathPhil Marcos Cramer").
In the United States a person may at their discretion use "Dr." as a pre-nominal or their doctoral degree's initials as a post-nominal, but rarely at the same time.
In Poland, abbreviated academic titles appear as pre-nominal letters: inż.
for holders of inżynier degree (Polish equivalent for a Bachelor of Science (BSc), Bachelor of Engineering (BEng), or Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc)) awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty; mgr for holders of a Magister (Polish equivalent for a master's degree); mgr inż.
for holders of a Doktorat awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty; dr hab.
for holders of a Doktorat and a habilitacja (Polish post-doctoral habilitation qualification); dr hab.
for holders of a Doktorat and a habilitacja awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty.
The main exceptions to this are the holders of degrees in engineering and architecture, who are referred respectively by the pre-nominal abbreviated titles eng.