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règles relatives à l'élaboration
May 24, 2012 13:22
12 yrs ago
French term

[Swiss letter-writing conventions]

Non-PRO French to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
The following appears in a Swiss letter

Lausanne, le 19 mars 2012/mf

I am curious to know what the mf stands for and whether it is conventional use.

Thanks for any feedback!
Proposed translations (English)
5 +3 someone's initials
5 -2 Ministry of Finance/Multi-Functional etc.
Change log

May 24, 2012 16:02: Kim Metzger changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Rob Grayson, Ty Kendall, Kim Metzger

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Discussion

philgoddard May 24, 2012:
Oh, I didn't notice it was today. Maybe I should have said we get these questions every few hours rather than every few weeks.
SJLD May 24, 2012:
@Phil I do DE>EN medical too - it cropped up today.
philgoddard May 24, 2012:
How did you find that, SJLD? I'd like to have included a link to a previous question in my answer, but there's no easy way of doing so.
SJLD May 24, 2012:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/german_to_english/medical_general/...
philgoddard May 24, 2012:
If it's not the writer's initials, it's those of the typist. It often takes the form AB/CD, where AB is the writer and CD is the typist.
Andreas THEODOROU (asker) May 24, 2012:
@ writeaway: No it's not the writer's initials. Perhaps it's a reference. // @PG: Personally, I've never noticed it before.
emiledgar May 24, 2012:
@ writeaway I agree. That was my first thought but I dismissed it as being too simple and obvious.
philgoddard May 24, 2012:
We get similar questions in various languages every few weeks. This convention also exists in English.
Trudy Peters May 24, 2012:
Agree with writeaway.
writeaway May 24, 2012:
initials of the person writing or typing the letter? Or just a reference of some sort. Not so convinced it's a standard convention

Proposed translations

+3
2 hrs
Selected

someone's initials

See the discussion entries.
Peer comment(s):
agree Trudy Peters : most likely the typist/secretary's
40 mins
agree B D Finch : In the UK, lower case generally indicates that the initials are those of the secretary or typist.
17 hrs
agree writeaway : not only in the UK. It's basic English language letter writing. The only slightly confusing thing here is where the initials are placed, assuming these are inititals and not a ref
19 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks all for input"
-2
1 hr

Ministry of Finance/Multi-Functional etc.

There are too many probabilities.
Note from asker:
I fully agree with Rob's statement. Of course you are entitled to believe that it's something completely unpredictable, but if you are not 100% then CL of 5 is not appropriate
Peer comment(s):
disagree Rob Grayson : No way. Complete guesswork in spite of confidence level 5. See discussion box. // Confidence level 5 means you are CERTAIN of being correct. How can you possibly be?
6 mins
THEN, YOU MUST BE THE ASKER???
disagree Cilian O'Tuama : Probabilities
1 day 13 hrs
Something went wrong...
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