close or close down?

[LeTyan]

Hi,

I am been confused about how to use "close" and "close down" a business or store. Which one is permanant? What about "shut"?
Which one is only for the night?

Say someone walks into my resturant, and I say, "hey! we are closing or shutting or closing down?

Could someone help me clear the confusion?

Thanks a million!

[Barb_D]

Don't say "hey" to your customers at all.

I'm sorry, we're closed for the evening.
I'm sorry, we're just closing [down] for the evening.

[LeTyan]

Thanks for the reminder!

So do "close" and "close down" not really differentiate from each other in terms of permanacy?

[Gillnetter]

Hi,

I am been confused about how to use "close" and "close down" a business or store. Which one is permanant? What about "shut"?
Which one is only for the night?

Say someone walks into my resturant, and I say, "hey! we are closing or shutting or closing down?

Could someone help me clear the confusion?

Thanks a million!

Whichever word you use has to be defined better. You can close a store for the night or close it forever. You can also use "close down" this way - "We are closed down for the night", or, "We are closed down permanently". "shut" works the same way. "We are shut down for the evening", or, "We are shut down and will not reopen".

[Rover_KE]

I'd say that in BE 'close down/shut down' means that the place is going out of business.

[bhaisahab]

I'd say that in BE 'close down/shut down' means that the place is going out of business.

I agree. In BrE I would expect to hear "I'm sorry, we are just closing" if the restaurant was closing for the day.

[emsr2d2]

I work in a shop and if someone walked in at 5.59pm (we close at 6pm) and I said "We're just closing down", they would be very dismayed and would wonder why we were going out of business, closing the shop and never opening it again. At 5.59, I say "We are closing in one minute [so if you're just running in for one item, that's fine]."

[Barb_D]

From this, I infer that Americans may use "closing down" OR "closing" to mean "for the night" while our friends across the Atlantic would not. To be safe, don't use "down" unless you mean "going out of business."