Advice needed - birthday party and 25% of invited guests have RSVP'd - what should I do about the rest

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:43:47 -0400, "kiss9" wrote:

By the way, RSVP means Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. It's French for answer
please. So an answer is definitely needed.

Unless I have forgotten my HS French, that should be the verb
répondez s'il vous plaît not réponse, but essentially you are correct.

It does mean please reply.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

"toto" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:43:47 -0400, "kiss9"
wrote:

By the way, RSVP means Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. It's French for answer
please. So an answer is definitely needed.

Unless I have forgotten my HS French, that should be the verb
répondez s'il vous plaît not réponse, but essentially you are correct.

It does mean please reply.

Thanks. My high school graduation was 20 years ago. I still donnt' spellll
welll.

Jefff


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

Nadyne,

Let us know how your party went. I will post the outcome of calling
the parents and the party.

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
"flowerlady" wrote in message
m...
I am having a birthday party for my son in a week. I have sent out 12
invitations and have only heard from 3 (2 No's and 1 Yes). I put an
RSVP by date on the invitation (9/19/2003). I have to let the place
know how many children are attending 2 days before the party (for
party activity supplies - there will be extra on hand but probably not
enough for 9 unreserved children).
What should I do? I think it's rude not to let the host know if you
are planning on attending or not. I also think it would be rude of me
to ask the parents if they are planning having their child attend the
party. Does RSVP mean "If you're not attending"?
Last year I invited 10 children to my son's party and all but one
RSVP'd. The one that didn't RSVP sent an apology letter for
forgetting about the party. I have a hard time understanding that 9
parents would forget to RSVP to this year's party. Please advise -
what would you do in this situation?

I'd call the parents. I would say, "I am sorry, but I must have missed
your
phone call." RSVP means Please Respond in French (responde suis vious
play,
although my french spelling if way off).

Respondez s'il vous plait, I think. But my spelling could very well be off
too, it's been a while :-)

"Kereru" wrote in message
...

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
"flowerlady" wrote in message
m...
I am having a birthday party for my son in a week. I have sent out 12
invitations and have only heard from 3 (2 No's and 1 Yes). I put an
RSVP by date on the invitation (9/19/2003). I have to let the place
know how many children are attending 2 days before the party (for
party activity supplies - there will be extra on hand but probably not
enough for 9 unreserved children).
What should I do? I think it's rude not to let the host know if you
are planning on attending or not. I also think it would be rude of me
to ask the parents if they are planning having their child attend the
party. Does RSVP mean "If you're not attending"?
Last year I invited 10 children to my son's party and all but one
RSVP'd. The one that didn't RSVP sent an apology letter for
forgetting about the party. I have a hard time understanding that 9
parents would forget to RSVP to this year's party. Please advise -
what would you do in this situation?

I'd call the parents. I would say, "I am sorry, but I must have missed
your
phone call." RSVP means Please Respond in French (responde suis vious
play,
although my french spelling if way off).

Respondez s'il vous plait, I think. But my spelling could very well be off
too, it's been a while :-)



Woops asked DH and he says repondez with an acute on the second e. Anyway
forgot to add, I'd ring around, you need to know numbers it's not rude.

Judy

"toto" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:43:47 -0400, "kiss9"
wrote:

By the way, RSVP means Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. It's French for answer
please. So an answer is definitely needed.

Unless I have forgotten my HS French, that should be the verb
répondez s'il vous plaît not réponse, but essentially you are correct.

It does mean please reply.

Sorry to contradict you but RSVP does mean Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. I
could not tell you the story behind this but where I live, it is commonly
used in the full form. My mother tongue is French and I live in Québec

Nadyne
--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

x-no-archive:yes
"kiss9" wrote:

I think for the next time - write REGRETS ONLY - not assuming that
people know what RSVP means.

Or "Please Let Me Know by 9/25 if you are coming."

Or (probably rude, but unmistakable), "If I don't hear from you by
9/25, we will assume your ds is not coming and will not have a place
for him."


"toto" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:43:47 -0400, "kiss9"
wrote:

By the way, RSVP means Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. It's French for answer
please. So an answer is definitely needed.

Unless I have forgotten my HS French, that should be the verb
répondez s'il vous plaît not réponse, but essentially you are correct.

It does mean please reply.


Sorry to contradict you but RSVP does mean Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. I
could not tell you the story behind this but where I live, it is commonly
used in the full form. My mother tongue is French and I live in Québec

Maybe that is a Quebec thing or a Canadian thing, but I remember
"respondez" also, and I can't find any reference on the internet to
"reponse" as being correct or used.

grandma Rosalie

In article ,
(flowerlady) wrote:

I am having a birthday party for my son in a week. I have sent out 12
invitations and have only heard from 3 (2 No's and 1 Yes). I put an
RSVP by date on the invitation (9/19/2003). I have to let the place
know how many children are attending 2 days before the party (for
party activity supplies - there will be extra on hand but probably not
enough for 9 unreserved children).
What should I do? I think it's rude not to let the host know if you
are planning on attending or not. I also think it would be rude of me
to ask the parents if they are planning having their child attend the
party. Does RSVP mean "If you're not attending"?
Last year I invited 10 children to my son's party and all but one
RSVP'd. The one that didn't RSVP sent an apology letter for
forgetting about the party. I have a hard time understanding that 9
parents would forget to RSVP to this year's party. Please advise -
what would you do in this situation?

you shouldn't have to -- but you will have to, simply call each family

rude they are -- but there is no choice if you don't want to run the
risk of no one showing

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 11:56:33 -0400, "kiss9" wrote:


"toto" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:43:47 -0400, "kiss9"
wrote:

By the way, RSVP means Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. It's French for answer
please. So an answer is definitely needed.

Unless I have forgotten my HS French, that should be the verb
répondez s'il vous plaît not réponse, but essentially you are correct.

It does mean please reply.

Sorry to contradict you but RSVP does mean Réponse S'il-Vous-Plait. I
could not tell you the story behind this but where I live, it is commonly
used in the full form. My mother tongue is French and I live in Québec

Nadyne

Is Canadian French is different than French French then?

Certainly the way I learned it and the way it is listed in most dictionaries
is what I quoted. I haven't taken French in a long time and don't speak
it but can puzzle it out in a written text.

My take on the réponse would be that you would need to use a
sentence with the article like:
Je souhaite une réponse s'il vous plait
meaning, I wish a reply, please.
Répondez s'il vous plaît uses the verb form
so it doesn't need the rest of the sentence.

I defer to your knowledge, but I wonder why our high school French was
different.

Found this online

http://www.wordreference.com/fr/tran....asp?enfr=RSVP

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question450.htm


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits

"toto" wrote in message
...


Is Canadian French is different than French French then?

Back when I was in the electronic phrase business we
found that the French phrase "Your mailbox is full"
in Canadian French meant "Your mailbox is pregnant."

I'm guessing there are more differences.