I recently completed a PP Lesson where the 4 answer choices seemed to equate the Portuguese honorific “Dona” with the designation “Ms.” in English. I find this a bit confusing.
In English, the designation “Ms.” was created to allow professional women to have a way of being addressed either verbally, or in written form, without having to reveal if they were married or not. (Previously the only professional choices had been Mrs., or Miss). The feeling was that men had the ability to use “Mr.” which did not reveal their status as married, or not.
In Portuguese, Dona has always seemed to me to be a polite and formal way to refer to a woman of a certain age (who is frequently, but not always, a housewife). In English we would almost never use “Ms.” outside of a professional environment.
@thomasharleybond, this is a tricky one Since Dona doesn’t give any indication of the woman’s marital status, we understand that different translations are possible, depending on context. So, across our content, you’ll currently see it translated both as Ms. and as Mrs. (we haven’t really used Miss so far). We’re open to thoughts on this.
The use of Dona might actually extend to professional contexts too, mostly to verbally address middle-aged women in professions perceived as less skilled, often with a sense of polite familiarity. It’s not likely to be used in formal written communications.
Beyond the question of marital status, I’m not sure Dona is translatable in most of the contexts that I’ve seen it used - as it is an honorific used in situations when English wouldn’t use one. If I met one of my neighbours in the street I would either say “hello” or “hello first-name”, I would never say “hello Mrs/Ms/Mr name”. I think the habit of adding an honorific died out in the mid twentieth century. Furthermore, I have never heard anybody use an honorific in a professional context except sarcastically.
For reference, my English is UK English with Australian influences. My experience is that Indian English and American English are both a bit more formal. I once had to mentor an American employee at a business in England to stop calling everybody Sir, because people assumed he was winding them up.
Since Dona doesn’t give any indication of the woman’s marital status, we understand that different translations are possible, depending on context. So, across our content, you’ll currently see it translated both as Ms. and as Mrs. (we haven’t really used Miss so far). We’re open to thoughts on this.