l'e-mail a été rejeté
Email bounced back in French is l'e-mail a été rejeté, meaning the email was not delivered and was returned to the sender.
l'e-mail a été rejeté is the standard way to describe a delivery failure for an email.
What does it mean word for word?
l'e-mail means the email, a été means was or has been and rejeté means rejected.
Which one should you use?
l'email n'a pas été délivré and l'email n'a pas été remis both stress that the email was not delivered, rather than that it was rejected.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase uses the passive voice, a été plus the past participle, because the email is what was rejected.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Avoid a word for word translation of bounced. l'e-mail a rebondi uses the literal verb for bounce, but it is rarely used for emails in French. Say rejeté instead.
Did you know?
- In Quebec, the term courriel is strongly preferred over e-mail due to government efforts to protect the French language from English influence.
- The word été used as the past participle of 'to be' comes from the Latin stātus, which means 'to stand'. This makes it a linguistic relative of the English word 'state'.
- The verb a été contains the word été, which is also the French word for 'summer'. In a sentence, this means you are literally using the word for the season to express the state of the email.
Examples in context
- Je vous informe que votre email a été renvoyé en raison d'une erreur de livraison.I am informing you that your email bounced back due to a delivery error.
- Désolé, ton mail n'a pas pu être délivré. La boîte de réception est pleine.Sorry, your email couldn't be delivered. The inbox is full.
- L'e-mail a été rejeté par le serveur.The email was rejected by the server.
- L'e-mail a été rejeté car l'adresse est erronée.The email was rejected because the address is wrong.
Example conversation
Two colleagues are discussing a missing message.
- ManonAs-tu reçu mon message d'hier ?Did you receive my message from yesterday?
- HugoNon, je n'ai rien reçu, Manon.No, I haven't received anything, Manon.
- ManonC'est étrange, l'e-mail a été rejeté ce matin.That's strange, the email bounced back this morning.
- HugoVérifie l'orthographe de mon adresse, Hugo.Check the spelling of my address, Hugo.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries a, été, CC BY-SA 4.0.
