Can someone please confirm if "merci bien" is acceptable, or if it is just bad grammar when compared with "merci beaucoup". I know this may seem just a little thing, but considering the number of times I'll be saying "thanks" on an upcoming trip, I'd like to know. Merci!

Just a simple "merci" will do, but even better would be "merci, monsieur" or "merci, madame" or "merci, mademoiselle" -- the French are very formal in their acknowledgement and forms.

(Use bonjour in the same manner, e.g., "bonjour monsieur", when entering shops, restaurants, and other places and you will be considered well-mannered.)

Rick in Maryland

"Merci bien" is perfectly acceptable. Listen to the French people around you, and you'll hear all kinds of variations: merci, merci bien, merci beaucoup, je vous remercie.....followed by Madame, Monsieur, or whatever. It's definitely not bad grammar.

Hi elsie,

I think that "merci" is usually sufficient. Unless someone has done something particularly kind "merci beaucoup" could be considered fulsome.

I think that "merci bien" could be misinterpreted as being sarcastic if not spoken properly.

Definitely include "madame, monsieur".

ira, dear:

I really disagree that "merci bien" could be construed as sarcastic, unless you said it in an obviously sarcastic tone. I hear it all the time from French people.

And, er, are you sure you know the definition of "fulsome?"

I use merci bien often in France..Never thought that it wasn't proper..

>.. are you sure you know the definition of "fulsome?"<

cloying; insincere or excessively lavish; esp., offensive from excess of praise. No?

According to my French son there is exactly no difference between the two in terms of parlance so stop worrying. Merci bien is a little bit older he says and you don't hear it quite as much but it's the same - he found it quite ridiculous to make a distinction of any kind.

Fulsome,
praise or thanks are not just given wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, they are laid on with a trowel. In modern English fulsome is derogatory, meaning 'too effusive or flattering',"overdone".

Merci bien AND/OR merci beaucoup to all who answered. I thought both could be used interchangeably, but wasn't completely certain. I'm a long ago French major (who generally obsesses about grammar) and seem to have picked up "merci bien" somewhere over the years and in my travels. Thanks again for the advice. IMHO, I find that a simple "merci" is never enough for the French. They enjoy hearing their language spoken well and often. Many thanks again!

I hear merci bien much more often than merci beaucoup. Just the fashion, I guess. In Brussels (and Paris), for every one merci beaucoup, I hear three merci biens (roughly). I stopped saying merci beaucoup a few years ago; I just go with the flow and say merci bien like most others. However, in the French countryside, we did hear more people saying merci beaucoup.

I agree with Btilke and St Cirq -- I use merci bien frequently and so do a lot of French people I know and I think I hear it more than merci beaucoup because it's shorter. It is not remotely thought sarcastic.

I thought it was actually "newer" than "merci beaucoup", not older, if that's what PalQ is saying, so that's a surprise to me. All French are not formal all the time at all, that you have to say "merci mademoiselle" or whatever, instead of just "merci beaucoup". In fact, in many contexts, that would sound weird (to my ears), to always have to include mademoiselle/monsieur or madame with the word merci.

At least no one says, "no problem," "I'm good," or "mahplezher."

... or whatever the French equivalent would be....

Though you have your answer already, maybe you'd also like this page: http://french.about.com/library/expr...-gratitude.htm

cmt!!!

Where've you been? We've missed you greatly on the puzzle thread.

Please check in, cmt. Merci bien.

(Yes, I agree completely -- merci bien is acceptable and probably more common than merci beaucoup.)

I have not bothered to check but I was taught that "fulsome" connoted not merely excessive, but excessive to the point, literally, of inducing nausea.

Anyway, we on this thread are all in agreement that it is pejorative and that it is not a synonym for "thorough, full, complete".

Alors, messieurs-dames (another vulgarism, much disputed on this board) je vous remercie du divertissement et vous souhaite une bonne soiree.

Cassandra, but they do...I've heard countless times "pas de probleme" or "avec plaisir." From young and old.

Another option I was taught for responding to thanks was "de rien".

>I was taught that "fulsome" connoted not merely excessive, but excessive to the point, literally, of inducing nausea.<

Literally?