"Good evening, how are you doing?"
Translation:Bonsoir, comment ça va ?
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217
"Bonne soiree" is actually "have a good evening" and "Bonne journee" is "have a good day"
1308
Although "Bonsoir" (masculine - one word) is correct, be sure to remember when saying "Have a good evening..." you will want to use "bonne" for "Bonne soirée" (feminine - two words), rather than "Bon."
1308
Saying "Bonne soirée" followed by "comment ça va" would be like this: You are wrapping up a conversation with someone, you've just finished speaking to, you look away and start to walk down the street (again, having just said, "Have a good evening!"). Then, just as you look away and start walking down the street you say, (comment ça va) "How are you doing?" As if to start up the conversation again - Picture that - Doesn't really make sense to do that! Does it?
1308
When one uses inversion in French, it is always "more formal" (even when using the informal/familiar form, "tu" vs. formal/polite form, "vous.")... On a casual/formal scale of 0-5 (0 - the least/not at all; 5 - the most/completely):
"ça va?" - asking "how is it going?" Casual - 5 / Formal - 0;
"Comment ça va?" "how are you doing" Casual - 4 / Formal - 1; more colloquial, used when speaking.
"Comment tu vas?" Casual - 3 / Formal - 2;
"Comment vas-tu?" Casual - 2 / Formal - 3; "How are you?" (Literally, "how are you going?") both in conversation and in writing. use if you want to be more romantic with a boy/girlfriend (than not).
"Comment vous allez...?" Casual - 1 / Formal - 4; but, without more, would still sound like an unfinished question; "Comment vous allez faire ça?" - "How are you going to do that?" is very slang, street talk, but nevertheless is used.
"Comment allez-vous?" Casual - 0 / Formal - 5; Respectively, one of the most formal and polite ways to ask "How are you doing?"
1308
Use "Bonsoir" as a greeting or friendly salutation. Use "Bonne soirée" as a departing wish.
1308
If you have long press menus on your phone, generally you can hold (long press) down on the letter "c" and a menu will appear showing "ç" as an available option for selection.
1308
Bonjour = Good morning / Hello (during the day)
Bonsoir = Good evening (usually after 5pm-ish)
1308
That would mean: "Good evening, are you doing well?" vs "Good evening, how are you doing?"
1308
Orally, nothing really. In relation to the language you might highlight your status as a foreigner (depending on who you talk to, not necessarily a negative), as most would invert the subject and the verb with that question.
Written however, remember the conjugation of the verb "aller" with "tu" is "vaS" If you use inversion the hyphen is also required between the inverted verb-subject. "Bonsoir, comment vas-tu?"
1308
Because, between languages, you can't always translate word for word. Literally "Bonsoir, comment ça va ?" translates to "Good Evening, how it goes? or ..."how goes it?"
Colloquially (in a conversation) though, the "asker" is obviously seeking to know how life is generally going for the "hearer." From that perspective they (the hearer) is quite casually being asked, "How are you doing?"
It will likely make more sense as you continue to study the language and get a feel for it. In the meantime, I hope the above is at least somewhat helpful.
1308
Most phone keyboards have long press menus. Generally you can hold down (long press) on any given letter and a menu containing several symbol options will appear, including accented letters available for selection.
(i.e. in addition to other options, long press on "c" should show "ç"; "e" might show any or all of: ê, ë, €,÷, e, é, è; etc.) Of course every brand of phone may vary.
Many keyboards will also allow you add and toggle between languages. (for example you might see a key that displays "EN" for English. A long press menu on that particular key may offer an additional "settings" menu represented by a gear symbol, which will allow you to add other languages, presumably French will be an option, which will then likely be represented by "FR" as you toggle between those keyboards.
1308
Remember that "bonne" is feminine and would go with "Bonne soirée" (two words) meaning: "Have a good evening."
"Bon" and "soir" are both masculine and go together as "Bonsoir" (one word) meaning: "Good evening."
Because "nuit" is feminine as well, "bonne" can be paired as "bonne nuit" to say: "Good night."
I asked the same question about 2 years ago in this thread. It was taught .... 55 years ago as comment allez-vous. What follows was my question: Ca va is the familiar tense correct? To a stranger I thought it was proper to use Comment allez-vous? the non familiar. Also I thought in asking a question, one inverted the pronoun and verb as I used above. Can anyone comment on these permutations of the language?
1308
I commented this to another comment above. Is this what you're looking for?... When one uses inversion in French, it is always "more formal" (even when using the informal/familiar form, "tu" vs. formal/polite form, "vous.")... On a casual/formal scale of 0-5 (0 - the least/not at all; 5 - the most/completely):
"ça va?" - asking "how is it going?" Casual - 5 / Formal - 0;
"Comment ça va?" "how are you doing" Casual - 4 / Formal - 1; more colloquial, used when speaking.
"Comment tu vas?" Casual - 3 / Formal - 2;
"Comment vas-tu?" Casual - 2 / Formal - 3; "How are you?" (Literally, "how are you going?") both in conversation and in writing. use if you want to be more romantic with a boy/girlfriend (than not).
"Comment vous allez...?" Casual - 1 / Formal - 4; but, without more, would still sound like an unfinished question; "Comment vous allez faire ça?" - "How are you going to do that?" is very slang, street talk, but nevertheless is used.
"Comment allez-vous?" Casual - 0 / Formal - 5; Respectively, one of the most formal and polite ways to ask "How are you doing?"
723
Comment ca va, ca va, comment allez-vous, comment vas-tu .... surely these are all correct depending upon the formality of the situation ?