Let’s say you want to send an email to thank your teacher for your progress in French.
Should you use “ Tu ” or “ Vous ” ?
How do you start and end an email?
Which sentences can you use?
So what’s in an email, after l’objet (= the subject line) ?
Before diving into the heart of the email, let’s start with the first line.
It’s usually a greeting of some sort, such as:
Or you can be more formal, and write your email like you’d write a letter:
We would never really use these in spoken French.
Here, Cher / chère means “dear,” but as you probably know, it also means “expensive” when talking about things you can buy.
Le truc en + :
Some French adjectives have two meanings like “ cher ,” one more down-to-earth, the other more metaphorical. When the adjective comes after the noun, it’s usually the concrete meaning. When it comes before the noun, it’s usually the metaphorical meaning.
For instance : un grand homme = a great man, un homme grand = a tall man.
By the way, Chéri (Chérie / Mon chéri / Ma chérie) means “my love, my dear.” Don’t make the embarrassing mistake of sending that greeting to your French teacher instead of “ cher ” !
It’s becoming more common to start an email the “American way,” with simply the name of your reader: Géraldine, … (I’m not fond of this greeting in French.)
Ending an email also relies on a few usual expressions:
We can use Bisous (with close friends and family) and Bonne journée (with anyone) in real spoken French conversation.
Variations on Bisous are a bit more outdated but more elegant:
These are all “kisses” like la bise , the French informal greeting of an “air kiss”. It’s not a romantic thing!
Finally, you can use “goodbye” like we use at the end of a conversation:
“ Tu ” (= singular “you”) is the informal, intimate pronoun to use when talking to friends and family. It conveys friendliness, closeness.
“ Vous ” (= plural “you”) is the respectful, more distant pronoun to use when talking to someone you don’t know and aren’t friends with, like a baker, a counter clerk or any administration. It conveys respect and formality.
There’s a grey area in the middle. For people you technically don’t know, that you do respect, but still want to be friendly with. For friends of friends for instance. Or an in-law. Or a teacher on the Internet that sends you an email every week! 😉
Well, it depends. Use what you’re comfortable with. Three thoughts on that:
Click here to learn more about “Tu” and “Vous” and how we switch between them: Tu or Vous? How to say “you” in French
In the examples for this lesson, I’ll use “ tu ,” but you can easily switch. And if you want to send me an email to thank me, I give you the permission to use “ tu ” !
Basic ways to thank someone in French:
If you’re sending an email to say thank you, the more precise you are, the better.
Explain how you feel, why their help mattered, what it allowed you to do now.
Merci énormément pour avoir gardé les enfants. Ça nous a beaucoup aidé, et on a pu enfin passer une soirée à deux avec Michel. Tu es vraiment très gentille ! (= Thank you so much for taking care of the kids. It helped us a lot, and we finally got to spend an evening with Michel, just the two of use. You’re really nice!)
And these are all sentences you can use in spoken French conversation as well!
But some “thanks” are used mostly in writing only. Especially “ Merci de… ” which is actually a command or a plea:
You can use “ Merci de… ” (in advance) instead of “ Merci pour… ” (for something in the past), in an email. I’m not a fan though, it feels a bit passive-aggressive. Merci d’avance is fine though.
Bonjour Madame,
J’aimerais réserver une table dans votre restaurant avec des amis. Pouvez-vous m’envoyer vos menus, si possible ?
Merci d’avance,
Bonne journée,
Julia
(= Hello Madam, I’d like to book a table in your restaurant, with some friends. Could you send me your menus, if possible? Thanks a lot, Have a great day, Julia)