Li:    大家好我是杨莉，欢迎收听你问我答节目，今天和我同在录音室的是我的同事William Kremer. Hello William.
 
William:    Hello Li. So, what’s on the menu today? 
 
Li:    Today we’re going to be answering a question from our listener Lanny. Lanny writes “I found BBC Learning English by accident and like it very much. It can help me improve my oral and listening.” 
 
William:  You know, I like this Lanny, he sounds like a really nice guy.
 
Li:    Yes, full of compliments. Lanny’s question is ‘Please can you kindly advise some blessing sentences for wedding, bearing and so on.’ 我想他这里说的 bearing 大概指的是生孩子, 这在英语里通常是childbirth. 所以  Lanny 希望我们能够介绍一些祝福语，你觉得怎么样 William?
 
William:  Well as it happens I have something that will help us answer Lanny’s question today. On these quite formal occasions what we say to people is often the same as what we write in a card. And I don’t know about you Li, but when someone gives me a nice card I can’t throw it out. 
 
Li:   William 保存着他收到的所有祝福卡。Actually, I’m the same William.
 
William:  Ah, are you Li? OK. Well, I’ve got my box of cards here. 
 
Li:     Oh wow! That’s huge! How many have you got there?
 
William:    Oh many many cards. I should through them out but I can’t. So let’s start off by looking at birthday cards. Li, could you read that one?
 
Li:  OK, let me see. “Dear Alex…” Who is Alex?
 
William:  Alex, that’s my wife. 
 
Li:   Oh right, OK. “Happy Birthday, love and best wishes, Grandma.” And kiss, kiss. 
 
William:   And then, what does it say at the bottom?
 
Li:   “Have a lovely day!” 
 
William:   So it’s a birthday card to my wife from her grandmother. She wrote “Happy birthday” and she also wrote “Have a lovely day”.
 
Li:    Happy birthday 生日快乐and have a lovely day 美好的一天。
 
William:  That’s quite normal, to say something like “I hope you have lovely day” or maybe “I hope you have a very special day”.
 
Li:    I hope you have a very special day 希望你度过特殊的一天。
 
William:  OK now Li I’ve got another card for you. 
 
Li:    Oh another one. Oh these cards are lovely! 啊，这些贺卡很可爱哟！这个卡上有鱼。Let’s see. “Dearest William, many happy returns, from Sophie and Brett”. 
 
William:  “Many happy returns”. That’s a little bit more formal than saying ‘Happy Birthday’. And it’s quite a useful phrase - we can use it for birthdays, anniversaries and weddings. You can also use it at New Year. 
 
Li:    Many happy returns 这句祝福语比较正式，不过可以在多种场合使用，其中也包括元旦祝福。 
 
  William 刚才你提到了你的妻子，我想问问，你有没有保存着你们婚礼时的卡片呢？
 
William:  Oh yes, yes! You think my wife is going to let me throw them out?! 
 
Li:   I’m sure you have loads of those cards.
 
William:   Here’s one, here's one. Now on the front of this card it reads “To the Happy Couple on your wedding day”. The ‘happy couple’ means the couple that’s just got married.
 
Li:    Oh really? 这么说你可以把新郎和新娘称为幸福的一对the happy couple. 另外从习惯上看英国会称呼你们这两位新人为克莱默先生和克莱默夫人，  ‘Mr and Mrs Kremer’ , isn’t it ?
 
William:  Yes Li, it is. But not all women change their names now, so it’s best to
check that one first! Now, do you want to read the inside of that card?
 
Li:  I’d love to. Pretty card isn’t it? “To Alex and Will, Wishing you many happy years together. Love from Jo and Martin.” Wishing you many happy years together 希望你们百年和好。 
 
William:  And here’s another one.
 
Li:  “Dear Alex and Will, Congratulations on your wedding day. We wish both all of the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you for the future. All our love, George and Rich”.   
 
William:  So George and Rich said “congratulations” and also, like the other card, they talked about the future. “We wish both all the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you…”
 
Li:    That’s very sweet. 在新婚贺卡上人们是不是经常读到对新人未来的祝福语呢？
 
William:  It’s very common. Another thing you can do if you like reading is to maybe look for a quote to make the card a little bit more special.
 
Li:  在写祝福语的时候还可以引经据典quote, 以便更为特殊。我觉得很多人可能都会觉得对待结婚这类人生大事进行祝福时要郑重其事，因此要使用比较正式的英语，对吗？
      William?
 
William:  No, that’s not true. In fact, the more personal and heartfelt that you make your card, the better. So use ordinary English that you can use to express your feelings normally.
 
Li:  I see. William说卡片寄语越是亲切personal 和发自内心  heartfelt 越好。所以最好的办法就是使用自己感觉舒服的语言，越自然越好。William 还有一个问题，刚才我们看的一张卡片上提到了富有wealth – “We wish both all the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you.” 在英国人赠送卡片时，祝福别人富有和生财是常见的吗?
 
William:  No, actually that is a little unusual. I know that in China people often talk
about money, but in Europe we don’t so much. So it’s more common to say ‘I hope the future you brings you joy’ or something like ‘May the future bring much happiness’. Now Li, here’s one last wedding card that I thought might be useful for our listeners to hear.
 
Li:  Let’s have a look. “Alex and Will. Hope you have an amazing day and a fantastic honeymoon break. Sorry I can’t be at your big day and I hope all goes well. All the very best. I’m sure you will have a wonderful life together, love Tim and Jo.”
 
William:   Nice card isn’t it?
 
Li:   Yes. 这位发贺卡的人在卡片上说，很抱歉，他们无法前来参加婚礼。
 
William:  That’s right. Sorry I can’t be at your big day. When people talk about ‘the big day’ they mean the wedding day.
 
Li:    Ah 很有意思英国人经常把新婚夫妇称为the happy couple, 把婚礼日称为the big day.
 
  Lanny 还想知道怎么为新生宝贝祝福，那William 你有没有宝贝贺卡?
 
William:  No, I don’t thank goodness!
 
Li:    Don’t you want a baby William?! 
 
William:  Well, no, not at the moment... But when you write a new baby card it’s normal to address it to both parents but usually the mother gets a special 
 
mention. So you would say something like “I hope that mum is recovering OK”. And then I would write about what a successful human being the new child will be with such good parents!
 
Li:  所以通常情况下是把贺卡发给父亲不过母亲往往对母亲进行特别问候，同时说一些祝福的话，比如在这么优秀的父母教育下，孩子一定前途无量。等等。哎William，你再说说在这方面有没有专门的祝福用语？
 
William:  Yes, you often hear reference to ‘the new addition to the family’. And that means the baby. So you would say for example “Congratulations on the new addition to the family”. 
 
Li:  That’s interesting. 新生儿有时被称为The new addition to the family 家庭新成员。好了，到此为止我们已经学了不少祝福语。William, shall we have a recap? 
 
Examples
 
I hope you have a very special day; Many happy returns; To the happy couple; Wishing you many happy years together; We wish you all the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you; Sorry I can’t be at your big day; Congratulations on the new addition to the family. 
 
William:  So Lanny, I do hope that this programme has answered your question.
 
Li:  我想Lanny 一定很高兴。另外我想提醒大家，不论什么时候，只要你遇到了英语学习方面的问题就尽管给我们发电子邮件，当然加上录音就更好。我们的邮箱是 questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. 也许我们优先选中你的问题。 
 
William:    Now that will be a cause for celebration!
 
Both:      Bye! 

This week Li and William answer a question from our listener Lanny. Lanny asks for some useful phrases for blessing people on happy occasions like weddings and ‘bearings’ (we think Lanny means childbirth here).

William answers Lanny’s question by looking at some of the special greetings cards he has received over the years.

Here are some of the useful phrases William and Li practise:

Birthdays

I hope you have a lovely day.
Many happy returns!

Weddings

Wishing you many happy years together.
To the happy couple on your wedding day.

Childbirth

Congratulations on the new addition to the family.

Listen to the programme to hear some more useful sentences as well as answers to these cultural points:

卡片上的寄语是否应该使用很正式的语言？
欧洲人是否习惯在贺卡上祝愿对方生财和富有？
在你无法出席婚礼时应该如何表示？

Don’t forget, if you have a question about English, email it to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. We might answer it on this programme.

Glossary 词汇

childbirth 生孩子
cultural points 文化语言要点