hehehe, it is not common in Brasil , sometimes we say brigadinha ( women )or brigadinho ( man ) can I ask you a question ? Is there any difference when a couple´s names appear like :
Dr John Doe and Mrs Susan Doe / Dr and Mrs John Doe
Is there any difference in meaning ? like they are not a couple anymore? and if they are not which way says it ? Or there are no difference at all? Their names appeared as donnors and appeared as Dr John Doe and Mrs Susan Doe
( what did you mean by: Ah well - another promising guess...)
Thanks!
If it's in a list of donors (one N), I'd think that the second one meant there was one donation - in the names of husband and wife, and that the first one suggested there were two donations - each from a personal account.
But this is only a guess. Speakers of BE used to follow the formula preferred by Mike, but the other formula - as Tdol said - is more common now; in fact, women who insist on being called 'Ms' resist it quite vocally. So, while this usage is in a state of flux, the message I get is as I've said.
b
PS -
The phrase 'another promising guess...' isn't an idiom. I was just reflecting on the fact that I had made what I thought was a good guess and that it had turned out wrong.