Is there an equivalent of “Ms” in foreghn languages? I wanted to greet my ophthalmologist, who is of German descent, this morning mit “Guten morgan, Frau Doktor.” But then I realized I did not know if she was married.
Any “Ms” is German, French, Spanish, etc these days? Or, for that matter, in Great Britain?
In present-day German, “Fräulein” is obsolete, so you address an unmarried adult woman as “Frau”.
We did this just a few days ago: Married/single in languages other than English.
Thanks, Sailor, me bad, didn’t think to search. Very intgeresting thread.
In Swedish, it’s fröken, but it it decades since anybody used it. It’s very old fashioned, to say the least.
We don’t use such titles anymore. I’m always a bit surprised when an American gentleman says “Sir” to me. The equivalence in Swedish would be herr, which, again, hasn’t been used for decades. You get the impulse to say: “Hey, I’m just a bloke, no need to ‘sir’ me”, but of course I understand it is out of politeness. It just feels strange.
The other week I was at a restaurant, and a middle aged man’s jacket had fallen to the floor, and I pointed it out for him: “Ursäkta, din kavaj har fallit i golvet.” I did’nt know he was foreign, but since I pointed to the floor behind his back, he understood what I meant and said: “Oh, thank you, sir”, which felt very weird. But you Americans are alway very polite, whatever you and others say, to my repeated experience.