[General] Use of “welcome” in greeting to visitors on LED screen

[David Jia]

Hello, everyone! I have recently been confused by the use of “welcome” in the greeting on a LED screen, and I’m wondering if you guys could help me get it straight.

We have come up with four welcome messages. Which one do you think is better and more natural? And why?

1) “Warmly welcome Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B to visit XXX Group”.

2) “A warm welcome to Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B” or “A warm welcome for Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B to visit XXX Group”

3) “Welcome to XXX Group, Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B”

4）“Welcome to XXX Group, Mr. A of Company A, and Mr. B of Company B” Should I put a comma before "and" in this sentence?

If all four are not appropriate, could you suggest an idiomatic way of saying it?

 

[J&K Tutoring]

You have numbered your examples 1 through 4, which is good, but actually you have 5 examples, so I will divide your #2.

1) "Warmly welcome Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B to visit XXX Group".​

This sentence has no subject, so not acceptable.

2) "A warm welcome to Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B".
No subject and no verb, but the subject/verb can be understood, so acceptable, but not best.

​

2a) "A warm welcome for Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B to visit XXX Group".​

This would be better as: ... welcome to... and leave off the "to visit..." There could be no confusion over who is welcoming Mr. A and Mr. B.

​

3) "Welcome to XXX Group, Mr. A from Company A, Mr. B from Company B".​

This kind of series must use the word and before the last item: Welcome to XXX Group, Mr. A from Company A and Mr. B from Company B.

​

4) "Welcome to XXX Group, Mr. A of Company A, and Mr. B of Company B". Should I put a comma before "and" in this sentence?​

No. It's not necessary.

I suggest: XXX Group welcomes Mr. A of Company A and Mr. B of Company B.​

 

[bubbha]

I think this is better:

"We at XXX Group warmly welcome Mr. A of Company A and Mr. B of Company B"

Note that it's a common error by non-native speakers to say "Welcome to visit X". The word "welcome" (from old English "wilcuma" - "pleasant visit") already contains the meaning of visiting. We just say "Welcome to X".

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Since this is a big display sign, maybe at a hotel, restaurant, or conference center, a full sentence isn't necessary. Something like "A warm welcome to . . ." is all that's needed.

But there's certainly nothing wrong with a concise sentence, like "We warmly welcome . . . ." Unfortunately, a period or exclamation point isn't likely to find its way to the end, so it's probably a lost cause.

 

[David Jia]

Thanks for all your replies. They are really useful and valuable suggestions. As it is a welcome message on a big screen, we have decided to use the following form. And depending on how much information we want to display, the expression can be really flexible.
Welcome to XXX Group,
Mr. A of Company A
Mr. B of Company B
...

I have also consulted a few native speakers, and they are divided on this issue. As far as I am concerned, all three should work well, but the first one"warmly welcome sb to do sth" is not accepted in British English, but ok in American English, as confirmed by one of my American friends. Although it is more often used as inviting someone to a stage, which makes it inappropriate to be used as a welcome message on the screen.