all being well

[Jiayun]

Hi all,

I got an e-mail as follows:-

QUOTE

Dear JY,

If this document is acceptable to you, we will circulate the document to everyone within today all being well.

UNQUOTE

I do not understand "all being well" here. What does it mean?

Thanks!

JY

 

[SoothingDave]

"Within today" is not a natural phrase.

"All being well" means either that all of the people who need to receive the document are in good health and are in the office and able to receive the document.

Or, that if all circumstances go favorably (i.e. there are no "emergencies" that prevent the planned work from being done) the document will be circulated.

 

[Jiayun]

Thanks!

It sounds a bit awkward to me that the phrase "all being well" is added at the end of the sentence. However, I get from you that this is grammatically acceptable, right?

JY

"Within today" is not a natural phrase.

"All being well" means either that all of the people who need to receive the document are in good health and are in the office and able to receive the document.

Or, that if all circumstances go favorably (i.e. there are no "emergencies" that prevent the planned work from being done) the document will be circulated.

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, it's OK. I would say "if all goes well."

 

[Barb_D]

I would say "if all goes well."

So would I. I thought "all being well" was awkward and unnatural.

 

[Rover_KE]

So would I. I thought "all being well" was awkward and unnatural.

'All being well' is just fine in BE.

Rover

 

[Barb_D]

Well, there you go! Go ahead and use it in BrE business e-mails, but not in American ones.
(Here we'd say "God willin' and the creeks don't rise.")

(Well, not really, thought I have on e-mails to people at work that I have a friendly relatinoship with.)

 

[Jiayun]

so it means "if all goes well"? Could I say "if all being well" instead of just stating all being well at the end of the sentence?

'All being well' is just fine in BE.

Rover

 

[Jiayun]

(Here we'd say "God willin' and the creeks don't rise.")

(Well, not really, thought I have on e-mails to people at work that I have a friendly relatinoship with.)


I have no clue as to what you mean by the above sentences. :shock: Could you let me know?

Well, there you go! Go ahead and use it in BrE business e-mails, but not in American ones.
(Here we'd say "God willin' and the creeks don't rise.")

(Well, not really, thought I have on e-mails to people at work that I have a friendly relatinoship with.)

 

[Barb_D]

There is an expression "God willing and the creeks don't rise." It's extremely colloquial. If God wills it to be (the equivalent of "Inshallah"), and no natural disasters occur, like floods that make the creeks rise and make the roads impassable, we will do {whatever}. It's pretty unlikely that God would have an opinion on whether we should so something and take personal actions to stop us, and it's pretty unlikely that a natural disaster would come suddently and prevent it, so the overall meaning is "Yes, that is my plan, (but you never know when something unexpected may prevent a plan from being carried out)."


So, you'll be at the party on Saturday?
Sure, God willing and the creeks don't rise.
Sure, if nothing unexpected happens
Sure, if all goes goes well.
Sure, I'm certainly planning to come.

 

[emsr2d2]

In a BrE email, I would have put the phrase at the beginning of the sentence and I think I would have used it in a slightly different way.

Everything is ready to be sent out. All being well, all staff will have the email by the end of today.

 

[BobK]

Well, there you go! Go ahead and use it in BrE business e-mails, but not in American ones.
(Here we'd say "God willin' and the creeks don't rise.")

(Well, not really, thought I have on e-mails to people at work that I have a friendly relatinoship with.)

'All being well' is an absolute phrase that can be tacked on either at the beginning or the end of a sentence (and sometimes in the middle - given the right punctuation! 'God willing' is another - a bit like inshallah, for people whose God is Allah. There are others - such as 'weather permitting' and 'other things being equal' (which is much neater in Latin: ceteris paribus).


b

 

[emsr2d2]

'All being well' is an absolute phrase that can be tacked on either at the beginning or the end of a sentence (and sometimes in the middle - given the right punctuation! 'God willing' is another - a bit like inshallah, for people whose God is Allah. There are others - such as 'weather permitting' and 'other things being equal' (which is much neater in Latin: ceteris paribus).


b

I was about to start another message with "In BrE, that would be ..." and then I realised that BobK is a BrE speaker! I've never heard or used "Other things being equal ...", only "All things being equal ..."

 

[BobK]

Yours is probably the one most used. The 'other things...' version came to mind because of ceteris (as in 'etcetera').

b