bien à vous

[Judith]

How would you translate this, as part of the closing in an email.

Used I suspect informally, or among friends, but I am looking for something which I could used instead of "regards" or "best wishes" when it is a "business" contact, but one which is relatively informal.

Cordialement doesn't seem quite right always!

[NormanH]

I don't understand your question.

I would say in French

"Sincères Salutations"

[woolybanana]

in an email? It is used very widely now, Norman.

[brianagain]

Bien cordialement / Salutations (abbr. of Je vous prie.. etc) / Cordialement vôtre

all seem fairly suitable in the context.

Brian (again)

[Chancer]

Bye Bye?

I am not joking, more and more people are saying it and if it is for an informal e-mail why not?, trouble is when I try it no-one understands it spoken with an English accent [:P]

[Pierre ZFP]

I work in a tri-lingual environment and came up with

Best regards - Meilleures salutations - Mit freundlichen Grüssen,

as part of my sign-off (yes I know the 'ss. in Grüssen' should be that funny B symbol but some systems don't support it'

Many colleagues have comented that it was a nice sign-off and have stolen it for themselves.

Well, imitation and flattery and all that.....

[NormanH]

[quote user="woolybanana"]in an email? It is used very widely now, Norman.[/quote]

You are right to raise the question of email, as the majority I receive have either nothing at all, or just the Christian name of the sender.

Basically I think there are those which replace a more formal letter, in which case I use something like the various suggestions here, or 'quick note' variety, which seem to have nothing or a variety of the following, collected from the email I have received during February from French people:

à bientôt (many cases)

Thanks a lot...see you soon

Cordialement

Avec tout mon dévouement,

 

Bien à vous

Bien amicalement.

Amitiés

Amitiès sincères

Bisous

[Judith]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Bye Bye?

I am not joking, more and more people are saying it and if it is for an informal e-mail why not?, trouble is when I try it no-one understands it spoken with an English accent [:P]

[/quote]

I do so agree - especially as we wouldn't say "bye bye"  but rather "bye" - but it is used - especially to English people as they think they are being very good and clever.

[Judith]

Thanks all,

Some useful suggestions I can take on board there, even if I am still no wiser as to what "bien à vous" actually means.

[woolybanana]

Does anyone remember the Profumo scandal which, amongst other things led to a change of endings in letters, particularly the disappearance of " I remain your humble and obediant servant", which I always rather liked?

It was satirized on That Was the Week That Was.

I am reminded of this by the sulfurous tone of "Avec tout mon dévouement, " which Norman seems to have inspired and received!

[Christine Animal]

"Good on ya"    [:D]    or "best to you".

Sorry, that was in reply to Judith's previous post "bien à vous".

 

[Christine Animal]

Here's something Judith which doesn't make it any clearer.  I always understood it as "well to you" as in best wishes to you, but they seem to imply that it means "well yours" as in sincerely yours, so now I don't know either!  Where is Clair?

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=233851

 

[NormanH]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Does anyone remember the Profumo scandal which, amongst other things led to a change of endings in letters, particularly the disappearance of " I remain your humble and obediant servant", which I always rather liked?

It was satirized on That Was the Week That Was.

I am reminded of this by the sulfurous tone of "Avec tout mon dévouement, " which Norman seems to have inspired and received![/quote]

That was from a local politician [:D]

[NormanH]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

Here's something Judith which doesn't make it any clearer.  I always understood it as "well to you" as in best wishes to you, but they seem to imply that it means "well yours" as in sincerely yours, so now I don't know either!  Where is Clair?

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=233851

 

[/quote]

I had assumed it meant 'may things go well for you'...as is ça va bien..

so I will have to have a rethink too..[8-)]

[Clair]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]Here's something Judith which doesn't make it any clearer.  I always understood it as "well to you" as in best wishes to you, but they seem to imply that it means "well yours" as in sincerely yours, so now I don't know either!  Where is Clair?

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=233851[/quote]

Bien à vous = Yours

[Christine Animal]

Oh, thank you Clair.  We will have to have a rethink then Norman as I thought it meant the same as you and often say to friends "bien à toi".

 

[NormanH]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

Oh, thank you Clair.  We will have to have a rethink then Norman as I thought it meant the same as you and often say to friends "bien à toi".

 

[/quote]

I actually now think it is closer to 'thinking of you' ...as in an abbreviated form of 'je pense bien à vous'.

I wouldn't write 'yours' in any sort of correspondence .

It would always be

'"Yours faithfully" or "yours sincerely", and that in business.

[Judith]

Gosh, I go away to eat, et voila!

Christine A, a very interesting forum, and most useful, along with the later additions to the discussion.

I think now that I could use it for informal and friends, but as said, not for "business". 

I could probably use it  where I use "cheers" to my English friends, so all I need now is to take one of the more business orientated ones given by NormanH (thanks) and I might be away.

Just need to be able to write in French more easily than I do and I'll be sailing along .... ha, ha!

[Âme]

Judith, I saw 'bien a vous' for the first time yesterday. It was in a 'business' e-mail. Here's what was written:

CELA SERA FAIT BIEN A VOUS

This was a note, added to an order confirmation, to acknowledge

special instructions (my request was also turned into

caps ...and, after I was so careful with the accents!)

[Judith]

I think it is encouraging that the French are trying to find more informal endings for emails - as for years they have struggled to cope with the antiquated letter formats, so they tend not to write at all!

Bien à vous ceertainly looks as though it could be used without too much concern as to whether it is too informal.  And along with the other suggested above, I can vary my endings a little now - thanks!

[Swissie]

Sincerely yours. (je suis bien à vous)

[Judith]

Swissie,

Thanks,  Now is that really the French interpretation of Yours sincerely, or actually sincerely yours, as they are not (at least to me) the same thing, in English.

[Swissie]

Touché Judith! Forgot about the 'nuance' there. Sincerely yours - and I'd say not to be used unless you know somebody well.

Yours sincerely, would have to be one of those awful French  Veuillez agréer, blablabla!

[NormanH]

[quote user="Swissie"]Touché Judith! Forgot about the 'nuance' there. Sincerely yours - and I'd say not to be used unless you know somebody well.

Yours sincerely, would have to be one of those awful French  Veuillez agréer, blablabla!

[/quote]

I have never seen or read 'Sincerely yours' in any English correspondence.

As I explained above 'bien à vous' is quite personal.

Like 'thinking about you a lot'

'je pense bien à vous'.

It's clear that for once the native French speakers on this site haven't grasped the English 'formula' and as usual the English are hopelessly lost.

[mint]

So, is Sincerely Yours American then?

What used to be a definite no-no in my day is to write "Yours sincerely" in a letter which begins "Dear Sir".