more on closing letters

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

What's your opinion about signing a letter Твоя or Ваша?? There seems to be quite a regional difference, and i'd be interested to know your thoughts. My friends from Irkutsk think this is quite acceptable; whereas my friends from Syktyvkar think it's crazy and old-fashioned. Do any of you sign your letters like this? Because now i feel stupid for signing so many letters "ваша/твоя"

any other thoughts on regional differences, and also just plain personal differences?
One time, i answered "прекрасно" when someone asked how i was doing. in hindsight, i wondered if that was an acceptable, authentic answer, so i asked a friend and she told me NO!! no one would ever say that, if they did it would only be a joke. I asked someone else about my supposed blunder, and she said it was perfectly acceptable, and in fact she says прекрасно all the time when asked how she is doing! So, i guess this just goes to show how subjective language is...

Comments

[kithrax.livejournal.com]

You may sign your official letters "ваша" and personal ones "твоя". Although "твоя" is used when you write a letter to your lover :) But the balance is just that.

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

yeah, i understand the level of formality. i'm just questioning the naturalness.

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

It`s not regional, it depends on your relation to the person. If you write to a person that you call "Mr. Somebody" or "Mrs. Somebody" you write Ваша. If you relate to the person as simply Mary or John, then you write твоя.
Or other way - if you cal the person ты in your letters, then you write твоя. If you call the person Вы then you write Ваша.

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

Sorry, i’m not being clear. I understand вы vs. ты, and correspondingly, ваша and твоя.
Bearing in mind the formality, are they commonly used/accepted closings??

For instance, i was writing a letter to a person i address as Вы, i signed it ваша, then had my friend check it for my many (many, many;) errors. When she saw I signed it ваша, she laughed, and said “we don’t write that!!” she thinks it’s a crazy, unnatural way to close a letter.
What do you think??

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

I think that bricoleura wasn't asking about when to use ваша or твоя, but instead whether to use them at all.

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

No, that`s me who is misreading, sorry, you are clear.
The closing is a bit old-fashioned now but accepted why not? Especially in formal writing.
As for the second question - it`s accepted too to say прекрасно. Yes, there are some nuances... depending on who is asking and whether you are serious or not. But on the whole there is nothing wrong with the answer.

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

In English you can sign a letter like that:

Yours,
John Smith

In Russian you do it slightly differently. You can write

Ваш Джон Смит

or

Твой Джон Смит

or

Искренне Ваш,
Джон Смит

. The latter way is acceptable in a business letter.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

As for "how'r'u'doing - fine" thing: yes, many Russians started to use this routine, mostly after being introduced to that side of American culture (thanks Hollywood.) But it's not the answer "прекрасно" that is not natural for Russian culture, it's the very manner to greet each other with a question "how are you" WITHOUT EXPECTING AN ACTUAL ANSWER. Some 15 - 20 years ago, if you'd ask a Russian how he or she was doing, you meant that you expected a long, detailed answer how exactly he or she was doing, and if the answer was just "fine" you'd think you encountered a careless idiot :)))) A normal type of answer was something like, "c'mon, these days nobody is OK, and so do I, you know, mom went to the hospital the other day, and I had to bring her apples and oranges, and you know how difficult it is to find oranges in stores, so I had to wait in line for six hours outside the store, and the wind chill factor was just terrible though it wasn't actually cold, so I'm afraid I'm getting a flu now..." etc.etc.etc. :))))

To make the long story short, it's OK to answer "прекрасно" when being asked "как дела," but for many people the whole dialog sounds a bit formal, modern and, er, a bit American :))

[aldr.livejournal.com]

"Твоя" carries a hint of intimacy and is perfectly acceptable in personal letters, like when writing to your most beloved friends or close relatives.

"Ваша" actually does seem a bit old-fashioned - my grandma would sign her letters like that - but it's definitely not crazy.

While "Искренне Ваша", like someone noted above, is a widely used signature in business- and other formal-style letters.

And as far as I know there's nothing regional in the usage of these words, just different people perceiving words differently.

[hound-lancer.livejournal.com]

To me its getting more and more common these days to sign off simply with your name without any Ваша, твоя and the like attached.
As for "How're you...", the current spoken tradition of at least Moscow region has it that you can say Как дела? Как жизнь? (Как жизнЯ? - highly colloquial), even Как она? (она - here жизнь). A short neutral answer would be Нормально, Хорошо. Undrstatements Помаленьку, Ничего (Ничё - coll) as well as overstatements Прекрасно, Отлично, Супер, Великолепно are also possible.

[spiderhood.livejournal.com]

No-one can bar ye from answering "прекрасно", but this is then supposed to mean that you're doing so freaking wonderful that it can't get any better even if you'd win a million bucks, get a new job, marry a superstar, learn how to fly and get contacted by an alien, all in the same day. Ain't ya really?

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Personally I never finish my letters like that.
In an official situation I finish them with "С уважением..." and with friends, I just write "Пока" or "До скорого".

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

yeah, I was afraid it sounded american;)))

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

Haha!;) Well, i was a bit пьяная when i said that, so that probably explains it;)

[bricoleura.livejournal.com]

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate your input!!

So, i guess it’s acceptable to sign my letters that way, though probably old-fashioned. It’s just funny that some people would encourage me to sign a letter “ваша” while others would chide me for it.

[branwen.livejournal.com]

Хахаха! Это хорошо. :))