Vertaling - Frans-Engels - Objet : A. G. N/Ref. : 345 Monsieur, Par la...

What happened to "Nous vous prions d'agréer, Monsieur,"?

Have you got some English expression that would fit this administrative politeness formula? I thought that you English were more sober than we French with that, so that from my point of view, sincerely yours would be suitable...

If this is just a politeness formula, you may be right that we don't even need it in English. If, on the other hand, the person is in fact seeking the approval of the recipient, we should probably leave it as is.

P.S. Not all English speakers are English.

From what I have learned this is really just politeness. If there were some approval or acceptance letter or written recipt wanted it would have been said in a separate sentence. My dictionary gives receive and accept for "agréer" and the formula explained would be: please accept (Sir) our sincere regards or something like that. Going even further in my memory we were taught to finish letters with f.ex. Looking forward to your prompt(or good?)receipt of this letter, we remain Yours sincerely..

But it seems I have forgot the exact formula given, so never mind. I hope you, kafetzou, understand this as my curiosity and as a wish to learn.

OK; I edited it. Thanks.