# French for "Thinking of You" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025 "2004-12-15T20:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/1 "2004-12-15T20:13:17Z")
My so-so French skills make me want to turn “thinking of you” into “_pensée à tu_” (the familiar “you” is deliberate), but am I correct? Should I use some variant of “you are in my thoughts” (“_tu es dans mes pensées_”) instead? Or is there another phrase that is used to mean this between friends, but isn’t a word-for-word translation? FWIW, I use this phrase to close e-mails to one particular friend; I’ve been using it for years, and figured it might be time to find out if I’m making up my own French phrases! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/2 "2004-12-15T20:56:58Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > My so-so French skills make me want to turn “thinking of you” into “_pensée à tu_” (the familiar “you” is deliberate), but am I correct? Should I use some variant of “you are in my thoughts” (“_tu es dans mes pensées_”) instead? Or is there another phrase that is used to mean this between friends, but isn’t a word-for-word translation? > > FWIW, I use this phrase to close e-mails to one particular friend; I’ve been using it for years, and figured it might be time to find out if I’m making up my own French phrases! 🙂 Pensée à vous. [**Translate Thinking of you.**](http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr) Not French student so have no idea as to propriety of this. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/3 "2004-12-15T20:57:07Z")
“pensee a tu” is correct (I assume you are a lady); “je t’embrasse” is rather common for closing letters between friends, but I like your phrase. ---
**Author:** ![pasunejen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/4 "2004-12-15T21:05:31Z")
Minor nitpick, which might not even be right: if you’re going to use the informal second person pronoun, shouldn’t it be “toi” in this case, since it functions as the object of a preposition here? ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/5 "2004-12-15T21:32:23Z")
I am not sure if "pensées à (anything) is correct - but it’s definitely not "pensées à tu. If anything, it would be “à toi.” Also, I believe it’s “pensées” plural, literally meaning “thoughts to (of) you.” P.S. don’t trust Babelfish to translate anything correctly. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/6 "2004-12-15T21:38:37Z")
> [@missbunny](#): > > P.S. don’t trust Babelfish to translate anything correctly. No kidding. Computer programs are nowhere near sophisticated enough yet to produce accurate translations. Babelfish is a transliteration tool and should not be confused with a real translator. It’s there to help you get the gyst of a website, not translate into grammatically correct and idiomatic target languages. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/7 "2004-12-15T21:42:20Z")
As to the OP, it’s been years, but I’m sure that "je pense à toi " is acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/8 "2004-12-15T22:09:49Z")
> [@pasunejen](#): > > if you’re going to use the informal second person pronoun, shouldn’t it be “toi” in this case, since it functions as the object of a preposition here? > [@missbunny](#): > > If anything, it would be “à toi.” :smack: I always forget about “toi” . . . Thanks! > [@](#): > > _Also, I believe it’s “pensées” plural, literally meaning “thoughts to (of) you.”_ So there’s no colloquial French equivalent to “thinking of…,” it’s just “thoughts of…?” > [@](#): > > _P.S. don’t trust Babelfish to translate anything correctly._ Er, I didn’t. “_Pensée à tu_” came out of my own little brain, and it surprised me to see **PinGear** ’s internet translation (and also convinced me a little more that I might have been presuming incorrectly). Besides, if I were going to trust Bablefish (or apps of its ilk) I wouldn’t have asked a question here, right? > [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m sure that "je pense à toi " is acceptable. Hmm, I think I like that even better than my “pensées/pensée” attempts. 🙂 Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/9 "2004-12-15T23:11:44Z")
Just to confirm that **pulykamell** ’s _"je pense à toi "_ is good. _“Pensée à tu”_ (or toi) doesn’t mean anything - _pensée_ is a noun (or past participle) meaning “thought”, _à toi_ after a noun indicates possession - the thought belongs to you… ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/10 "2004-12-16T00:53:39Z")
Could you make it a gerund by saying “Pensant a` toi”? ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/11 "2004-12-16T00:55:47Z")
I used to be almost completely bilingual and although I have lost much of my french due to disuse I would say that “Je pense a toi/Je pense a vous” would be perfectly acceptable. Or, you could even say “tu es dans mes pensees/vous etes dans mes pensees”. Sorry, I don’t know how to work the accents on this machine. ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/12 "2004-12-16T01:01:33Z")
Slight hijack, but a little bit related: I always found it interesting that to say “I miss you” in french, you say “tu me manques”. Seems wrong. Always sounded friggin egotistical to me, but it’s true! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/13 "2004-12-16T01:13:05Z")
> [@Nunavut Boy](#): > > Slight hijack, but a little bit related: I always found it interesting that to say “I miss you” in french, you say “tu me manques”. Seems wrong. Always sounded friggin egotistical to me, but it’s true! I always stumble over this French construction too. To an Anglo mind, it’s quite counter-intuitive. ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/14 "2004-12-16T01:29:38Z")
As my dad would probably say (a german who married a french woman) EVERYTHING the french do is counter-intuitive!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/15 "2004-12-16T02:33:19Z")
> [@chaoticdonkey](#): > > Could you make it a gerund by saying “Pensant a` toi”? Yes, strictly, you could. However, I wouldn’t use this construction to translate the English “thinking of you.” You’d use a gerund in the following manner: _Pensant à toi, j’ai acheté ces fleurs_. (I bought those flowers thinking of you.) By itself, “pensant à toi” is incomplete. You’d get the idea accross, but if you want to be nitpicky about style, “je pense à toi” is better. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/16 "2004-12-16T03:19:18Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > Yes, strictly, you could. However, I wouldn’t use this construction to translate the English “thinking of you.” You’d use a gerund in the following manner: > _Pensant à toi, j’ai acheté ces fleurs_. (I bought those flowers thinking of you.) > By itself, “pensant à toi” is incomplete. You’d get the idea accross, but if you want to be nitpicky about style, “je pense à toi” is better. But you could say the same thing about English. “Thinking of you” is an incomplete English phrase, but anyone fluent in English would recognize that the “I am” is implied. I thought the OP was asking about common usage and not necessarily forming 100% gramatically complete sentences. Would a French speaker hear “pensant à toi” as a meaningless phrase that sounds “off” in casual usage? I think in English, anyway, the complete-sentence version sounds stilted and actually a little stalkerish. I AM THINKING OF YOU, SolGrundy ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/17 "2004-12-16T03:28:33Z")
Vous êtes toujours dans mes penses? ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/18 "2004-12-16T03:31:01Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > Would a French speaker hear “pensant à toi” as a meaningless phrase that sounds “off” in casual usage? I think in English, anyway, the complete-sentence version sounds stilted and actually a little stalkerish. Not in French, though. I’ll try to rationalise it this way: “Pensant à toi” sounds odd by itself at the end of a letter because you’d expect it to _begin_ a thought, not end one. Also, “thinking of you” can be a gerund, but in the context in question, it’s a contracted form of “(I’m) thinking of you.” In French, the two forms (pensant/pense) are different. In French, the presence of the pronouns is not optional. Dropping the first person pronoun results in an imperative: “pense à toi” actually means “think about yourself.” Another similar way you could sign of a letter would be this: _jovan, qui pense à toi._ ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/19 "2004-12-16T03:33:04Z")
Merde! “Vous êtes toujours dans mes pensées”, peut-être? ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025/20 "2004-12-16T03:36:08Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Vous êtes toujours dans mes penses? Nitpick: _pensées_. It’s good but a bit old-fashioned. I don’t think many people would use that phrase anymore. Rephrasing it in the familiar: “Tu es toujours dans mes pensées”, works but is actually quite strong. You wouldn’t use it unless you were _really_ fond of the person. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-for-thinking-of-you/280025.md?page=2)