French writing phrases you can’t get your head around
Here's an inside look at some of the most excruciatingly formal French expressions in letter and email writing.
Published: 27 September 2016 14:59 CEST
Photo: Ray Sadler/Flickr
If you're ever received (or worse, had to write) a formal French letter, then you'll know how absurdly difficult they can be to understand (and compose).
Here's a list of some of the most commonly occurring greetings, phrases, and sign-offs that you need to know before putting pen to paper. Perhaps the best thing is, you just don't need to understand some of them, just to learn them off by heart.
Starting a letter
There are rules galore for how you start off a letter, so if you want to make a good impression then take note.
Forget Cher
Never assume that you can start off a formal letter with the French word for “Dear” – Cher, or Chère if you're writing to a woman – unless you're sure you can get away with it (a letter to family, or a friend for example).
Begin formally
If you're unsure who to send the letter or email to, write:
Monsieur (or Messieurs) – meaning Sir (or Sirs). Sexist, sure.
There are loads of useful little phrases for letter writing in French that regularly crop up, all longer and far more complicated than their English cousins. Here are a few. Just learn them, don't try to understand them.
Je vous prie de bien vouloir me faire savoir…Can you please let me know…
Je vous prie d'avoir l'obligeance de…Would you please be so kind as to…
French elections: What is ‘parrainage’ and how does it affect candidates?
If you follow French politics, it's about this time that you will start to see a lot of mentions of parrainage - here's what that means and how it affects the race for the presidency.
Published: 9 February 2022 16:56 CET
The French word parrainage means sponsorship or guardianship and it comes from parrain – godfather.
Just as in English, parrain can be used in its literal sense for a child’s godfather (godmother is marraine) or a more general sense for anyone who is a powerful figure – the classic mafia movie The Godfather is Le Parrain in France.
But in the context of presidential elections it has a more specific meaning, which is to do with how you get onto the ballot paper.
In order to be a candidate in a French election you have to be a French citizen aged 18 years or over.
But you also need to collect at least 500 signatures (or parrainages) from elected officials to back your campaign.
These can be from anyone elected to public office from village mayors to MPs, MEPs and Senator but there are some rules – the officials must come from at least 30 different French départements or overseas French territories and no more than 50 signatures can come from one département or overseas territory.
This year, candidates have until March 4th to gain the signatures they need, if you’re on French social media you may recently have spotted lots of obscure politicians tweeting pictures of either a signed form or a letter being popped into the postbox – they’re making a public declaration of their parrainage.
You don’t need to be on Twitter though, the names of all the officials who have given their signatures will be published on March 8th, along with the list of candidates who have gained the required 500 and therefore their place on the ballot paper.
Until that date, the question of who has the required numbers of parrainages is the subject of a lot of speculation and newspaper headlines, as well as charts like the one below, which are generally based on public declarations of support.
La première qui lead sur les parrainages et la seule qualifiée largement à gauche grâce aux soutiens des élus aujourd’hui c’est @Anne_Hidalgo ! 😘🌹 pic.twitter.com/e0h3Qdasd7
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