chantal's new year's wish

I'm finally getting around to looking at all past posted discussions and making notes. Since I'm starting from the present and working back, I just came across the following:

Je vous souhaite à tous et à toutes une belle et douce année 2013 avec plein, plein, plein de joie, de bonheur, de réussite et de santé pour vous et tous vos proches.

1) If "à tous et à toutes" weren't in the sentence, I could see the reason for the "vous" but if I had said "I wish everyone..." I would have said "Je souhaite à tous et à toutes.... The "vous" seems redundant, but I'm sure this is the way it is expressed since Chantal is French. Would it also be correct to state it as I would have?

2) I would have said "....2013 plein de joie, etc." or "....2013 avec beaucoup de joie..." I've only recently learned that there are many expressions where you use "très" where "beaucoup de" would seem warranted -- j'ai très soif, sommeil, etc. I'm deducing that this is a twist on that.

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Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on February 24, 2013 at 12:07am

Hello

1) the way I used is one way amongst others. But ...

"Je souhaite à tous et à toutes" is grammatically correct, but weird in this circumstance, this sentence isn't used like that.

I'm going to try to explain, there are very very slight difference.

for the way "je souhaite à", I don't speak directly to a people. It's impersonal.

For exemple, think about a wedding, and I read the speech, I would say "Je souhaite à Paul and Marie ...." because I am not speaking directly to Paul and Marie, but I am speaking to the audience telling my wishes for Paul and Marie.

In the same wedding and the same speech, if I want to speak directly to Paul and Marie, I would say "Je vous souhaite, Paul et Marie". It's very personal here.

For "Je vous souhaite à tous et à toutes" (I had already made a mistake, it's "à toutes et à tous" with feminine in first) It's the same thing. it's more personal, welcoming. If I was been a manager, and I had had to speak to my colleagues, in a mail, I could have said "Je souhaite à tous et à toutes" with seriousness, solemnity.

2) Yes "plein de" is another way to say "beaucoup de", but "très" can't be used here. "Beaucoup de" or "plein de" can be used for a quantity, "très" is for a level.

I hope you understand what I have written, and now I had to go to read my English grammar again, because you don't know how it was difficult to write these sentences with the sequence of tenses. (And I don't dare to imagine all the errors)