# I hope this letter finds you well.



## kataya

您们好, I am a beginning Chinese student and was wondering about the best way to translate this somewhat old-fashioned English tiding:

"I hope this letter finds you well."

This is sort of a play on words, as it can mean "I hope this letter reaches you without problems" and "I hope you are well when you receive this."

My initial thoughts were:

我希望这封信你好收到.

But I don't think that is correct.

How can I express this properly? Is there a traditional phrase to use at the end of a letter? 

多谢


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## daoxunchang

你是在翻译《肖申克的救赎》吗？我们老师上课的时候还给我讲了肖申克写的这封信，真的非常漂亮。
这样翻译你看行不行：希望你接到这封信的时候一切安好？
也勉强可以说是双重意义吧？


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## Jerry Chan

This is challenging. I couldn't think of a pun like that in Chinese.
How about:
希望你收到這封信,一切順利。
一切順利 here has a bit of the same ambiguity.


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## EddieCai

There is a similar expression as '*finds you well*', it's '*见信好*'


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## daoxunchang

EddieCai said:


> There is a similar expression as '*finds you well*', it's '*见信好*'


 
That's right!


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## kataya

阿, 谢谢. 那是很简单和很优雅.

我很喜欢 <<肖申克的救赎>>...


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## daoxunchang

“简洁优雅”would be better. "简洁优雅"比“很简单和很优雅”要“简洁优雅”：）


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## matrixx

There is no such expression in Chinese.
So I think you need not to bother translating it, just use a common expression, such as mentioned above by other guys.


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## matrixx

ps: "您" can not be used with "们", it sounds really weird. "大家好" or "你们好" is OK.


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## 0216monty

kataya said:


> 您们好, I am a beginning Chinese student and was wondering about the best way to translate this somewhat old-fashioned English tiding:
> 
> "I hope this letter finds you well."
> 
> This is sort of a play on words, as it can mean "I hope this letter reaches you without problems" and "I hope you are well when you receive this."
> 
> My initial thoughts were:
> 
> 我希望这封信你好收到.
> 
> But I don't think that is correct.
> 
> How can I express this properly? Is there a traditional phrase to use at the end of a letter?
> 
> 多谢



It should be something like 近来一切还好吧？in Chinese
_I hope_ _xx_ is NOT a common beginning of a Chinese style letter, which typically begins with a question like _how have you been_, or _Are you doing fine_?

To make it more idiomatic, just take_ I hope_ out.

eg. "I hope you are doing OK in your studies" would be best rendered as

我希望你近来学业还顺利吧？

If you insist on extending a wish

try

祝一切安好 for I hope you are well. But is typically used at the end of a letter.

Anyway, it is not a formal business letter. So, taking into consideration that it is written by a non-Chinese speaker, I doubt anyone would really bother paying attention to this sort of problems.


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## avlee

EddieCai said:


> There is a similar expression as '*finds you well*', it's '*见信好*'


 Not bad at all. But usually this phrase is used at the beginning of a letter, if I remember correctly.
Nevertheless, I can't figure out a better one so far.


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## Kevin70s

I am afraid there is no "but" here - "I hop this letter finds you well" is always used at the beginning of a letter too. I just heard of another term "展信佳" that fits as well as "见信好" .


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