An, Année, Bonjour, Bonne Journée etc.

Consider the two sentences below:

1. Good day.
2. Have a good day.

In the first sentence, we are greeting someone. However, in the second we are not but instead wishing someone a good day. To distinguish the two, we add "have a" in the second case. In French, instead of using "have a", we use a suffix, -ée.

Thus, the French equivalents of the sentences above would be:

1. Bonjour.
2. Bonne journée.

Other similar contrasting pairs include:

1. Bonsoir, Bonne soirée - good evening, have a pleasant evening/enjoy the evening
2. Bonne nuit, Bonne nuitée - good night, have a good night (I must say I have not heard Bonne nuitée very much over the years.)

Be careful now with the words "an" and "année". The best advice I ever read about these two words is to use "an" when enumerating, i.e. counting years. For all other situations use "année". Note: the rule I have given you is not entirely cast in stone. While it prevent you from making mistakes, sometimes it is okay to use "an" and "année" interchangeably.

Here are some examples with "an" and "année":

1. Il y a deux ans depuis je l'a vu.
[It has been two years since I last saw him.]

2. J'attends toute l'année pour ce moment.
[I have been waiting the whole year for this moment.]

3. Bonne année.
[Happy new year. More literally: Have a good year.]