# bonne fin de journée/soirée



## DearPrudence

Hi everybody!
First message so I hope it's not too stupid a question
I would like to know how you could translate "bonne (fin de) journée/soirée" when you say someone goodbye.
Thank you.

PS: this forum is great as well as its members. 


*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one
(J'ai laissé le chat, c'est collector...)


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## Agnès E.

Bonjour DearPrudence,
Bienvenue sur le forum !

1. Il n'y a pas de questions stupides, il n'y a que des questions. 
2. *I wish you a nice evening* pourrait-il faire l'affaire ?


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## DearPrudence

En fait, je pensais à ce qu'un commerçant peut dire par exemple. Donc peut-être que "I wish you a nice evenig" est un peu long? But thanks all the same.


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## E-J

Moi, je dirais "Have a nice evening" ou simplement "Good evening".


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## Amityville

E-J, on dit 'Good Evening' au moment où on rencontre la personne et 'have a nice evening' quand on part d'habitude.


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## emma42

I agree with Amityville.  Prudence, may I compliment you on your correct usage of the apostrophe in "its" and it's".  Many native speakers get this wrong.


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## DearPrudence

Actually I have the impression that when it's not your native language you're more careful and you think of the grammar when you're write a word while you tend to write as you hear when it's your native language (well, what I said is not very clear ...)


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## LV4-26

Welcome to the forum, dear Prudence
And...greet the brand new day


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## emma42

Yes, I agree with that, Prudence.  I wish my French were as good as your English.


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## E-J

I would happily use 'good evening' as an alternative to 'goodbye' as I'm leaving a restaurant, for example.


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## emma42

E J, I think that usage would be very upper middle class in register and would not be in general usage across classes.  What do you think?


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## E-J

Oh no, I've unwittingly revealed the truth about my very upper middle class identity 

I use it to be courteous.


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## emma42

EJ, I really meant no offence at all.  I do maintain that to say "good evening" instead of "goodbye" is posh.  Please don't take offence - I am being objective.


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## E-J

No offence taken! I hoped the smiley would clarify that  

It really depends on the context. I would never say 'Good evening' to friends ... I'd say 'See you!' and the reverse applies to the restaurant scenario I was describing. 

In most situations, including DearPrudence's example (the shopkeeper) I actually think a simple 'Goodbye' would be the most natural thing to say.


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## emma42

Eh bien!  Je m'inquietais un peu.


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## anangelaway

E-J said:
			
		

> No offence taken! I hoped the smiley would clarify that
> 
> It really depends on the context. I would never say 'Good evening' to friends ... I'd say 'See you!' and the reverse applies to the restaurant scenario I was describing.
> 
> In most situations, including DearPrudence's example (the shopkeeper) I actually think a simple 'Goodbye' would be the most natural thing to say.


 
I totally agree with E-J. On the proper context, I will myself answer when leaving a restaurant: Bye (Goodbye!)! See you soon!
Edit= & a ''Thank you! (of course)


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## Mahya88_h

Bonjour!

Can you plz translate this sentence to english?

"Bonne fin de journée"

Merci


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## Tayllc

maybe, _have a nice evening_? or simply Good Evening is more common. 
Hope this helps!


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## primokorn

"Enjoy the rest of your day" is correct? Is there a difference between the writing and oral discussion?

Thanks


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## nandini

it means have a good day.....


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## wildan1

primokorn said:


> "Enjoy the rest of your day" is correct?
> Thanks


 
Yes, it's correct. You would mostly hear it in informal settings, although it is not really slang per se.


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## Lucja

well I love "have a good evening"


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## wildan1

_bonne fin de journée = enjoy the rest of your day/afternoon_

_bonne soirée = have a good evening/night_


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## Keith Bradford

wildan1 said:


> _bonne fin de journée = enjoy the rest of your day/afternoon_
> 
> _bonne soirée = have a good evening/night_


 
You're absolutely right, but in fact does anybody actually say these things?  Apart from well-drilled hotel employees for instance?

I know that in the past 20 years I've lived in France, I've come across a whole pile of such phrases (bonne fin de week-end, bonne continuation...) which have absolutely no equivalent in everyday spoken (UK) English.  I'm certain that I've never in my life spoken the words: _enjoy the rest of your afternoon._


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## wildan1

> You're absolutely right, but in fact does anybody actually say these things?


 
Yes, Keith, I would say them from time to time--and often hear them, perhaps more in business than in personal relationships. 

Not sure if they are more frequent over here than in European English-speaking areas, however.

_Bonne fin de week-end - Enjoy the rest of your weekend._ Yep, I guess I would say that, too.


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## Keith Bradford

wildan1 said:


> Not sure if they are more frequent over here than in European English-speaking areas...


 
I think that must be it.


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## primokorn

Thank you so much but is there a difference between the writing and oral discussion?


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## Icetrance

primokorn said:


> Thank you so much but is there a difference between the writing and oral discussion?


 
No, there is not.


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## Icetrance

I'm not a big fan of translating "Bonne fin de journée" by "Enjoy the rest of your day". That's more "Bon reste de journée". Imho, "Bonne fin de journée", which really means "Good late day" (after 4 or 5 going into early evening), could just be translated by "Good afternoon" (around 4)  or "Good evening" (after 5).


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## Keith Bradford

Icetrance, is this another UK/US division?  Because I'd never say "_Good evening_" to a person when leaving them, only when greeting them.

For me: _Good evening_ means hello, _good night_ means goodbye. _Bonne fin de journée_ also means goodbye (but it's not late enough to go to bed). I suppose I'd translate it as: _*"Have a nice evening" *_or _*"Enjoy your evening".*_


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## Icetrance

Keith Bradford said:


> Icetrance, is this another UK/US division? Because I'd never say "_Good evening_" to a person when leaving them, only when greeting them.
> 
> For me: _Good evening_ means hello, _good night_ means goodbye. _Bonne fin de journée_ also means goodbye (but it's not late enough to go to bed). I suppose I'd translate it as: _*"Have a nice evening" *_or _*"Enjoy your evening".*_


 
You're right, Keith: We would say "Have a nice evening/Enjoy your evening" as well in North America. I wasn't realizing the full context here.

Thank you for pointing that out.


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## Elowen R.

I am emailing a potential future co-worker. I usually end my emails with "yours sincerely" or "yours faithfully", but the previous few messages were quite informal.

Is it acceptable to end my email with something like "have a good day"? If it is correct, what do I say if I send my email at, like, 6:00 PM? "Have a nice end of day"? "Have a good evening"?


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## LostInLanguage

'Best Regards' is quite a popular one.


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## Micia93

Je mets un mélange des 2 lorsque mes emails ne sont pas formels : "have a nice evening"  (et on me répond généralement "have a nice evening too")


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## lamy08

_Cordially_ est passe-partout et très courant.


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## Enquiring Mind

Also: "Enjoy the rest of the day!" if there's something special about that day, e.g., it's your birthday, but usually _bonne fin de journée_ doesn't mean that, it's just a normal sign-off, so LostInLanguage's "best regards" works in most cases, or micia's suggestion in #3.


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## sarie

Best regards is fine.

But I often say "have a good day" too - this is more informal. It doesn't matter at what time you send your email: a good "day" is always appropriate.


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## mdb

Lamy08, I'm not sure I've seen _cordially _used very often on its own at the end of an email. It seems a bit stand-offish to me...


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