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Vous or tu?
French has vous for the polite “you” and tu for the familiar one. With a customer, a landlord, an office or anyone you do not know, vous is always right. Tu is for friends, family, or when the other person explicitly says “tutoie-moi”.
Translation follows the tone of what you write. A polite, formal sentence comes out with vous; a casual one may come out with tu. Keep the same tone from start to finish of your message.
Opening and closing a message
French correspondence has set openings and sign-offs. Keep yours simple and the translation will read naturally:
- Formal opening: “Dear Mr Dupont” (Monsieur Dupont) or “Dear Ms Martin” (Madame Martin) rather than “Hi”.
- Everyday opening: “Hello” (Bonjour); in the evening, “Good evening” (Bonsoir).
- Formal sign-off: “Kind regards” or “Have a good day” (Cordialement, Bonne journée).
- Friendly sign-off: “See you soon” (À bientôt).
Accented letters and names
In French, accented letters such as é, è, à and ç can change a word's meaning. Translation writes them correctly by itself; the trouble starts when you have to type a name, a street or a company name by hand.
Copying the name from the incoming message and pasting it is safer than retyping it. Leave foreign names as they are in your own text; translation does not change them.
Dates, times and numbers
French-speaking countries write dates day/month/year. Times use the 24-hour clock: “15 h 30” or “15h30”.
The decimal separator is a comma (12,50 €) and thousands are separated by a space (1 250 €). Write prices, sizes and quantities as you normally would; for important amounts, you can spell the figure out once as well to avoid any misunderstanding.
Short sentences with one meaning
Long sentences full of commas get tangled in translation. Say one thing per sentence: what you want, when, and where.
Avoid idioms and jokes; an expression translated word for word into French can become meaningless. “I look forward to your reply” is safer.