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Is it correct to say "Wish you a happy weekend" or should I say "Wishing you a happy weekend"?

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2  
Seems an odd wish to me. Generally I'd use "have a good weekend". – user362 Jan 6 '12 at 21:24

closed as not a real question by Robusto, Mehper C. Palavuzlar, simchona♦, Mahnax, Marthaª Jan 6 '12 at 22:16

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Neither Wishing you a happy weekend nor Wish you a happy weekend would be used in normal conversation. As others have noted, spoken parting platitudes at the end of a week are normally started with have, such as:

  • Have a good weekend
  • Have a nice weekend
  • etc.

Change the adjective to be what you think most appropriate for the situation.

On the other hand, if you are signing off some correspondence, such as an email, then Wishing you a happy weekend is more appropriate.

Similar constructions include

  • Wishing you a happy birthday
  • Wishing you a merry Christmas
  • Wishing you well

To use *Wish you a happy weekend you need to add I to make the sentence grammatical. i.e.

I wish you a happy weekend.

A notable exception to this is the common postcard sign off Wish you were here where it is idiomatic to leave out the I.

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up vote 3 down vote

In the UK we say 'Have a nice weekend.'

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2  
In the US as well. Not sure why someone would downvote this... – Jim Jan 6 '12 at 21:27
+1. This is what I use as well. – Mehper C. Palavuzlar Jan 6 '12 at 21:31
My guess is the downvoter thought that this doesn't answer the question. But since 4 people have decided it isn't a question, that doesn't apply. – Mahnax Jan 6 '12 at 22:14
@Mahnax Another problem with the "doesn't answer the question" rationale is that Jim's answer says about the same thing as Barrie's answer but wasn't downvoted. -- BTW, when I looked at this question an hour ago, I looked all over for a duplicate but didn't find one; the "not a real question" rationale for closing didn't occur to me, nor is it obvious. – jwpat7 Jan 6 '12 at 22:23
1  
I wasn't the downvoter, but I must say I think "Have a nice xxxx" sounds a bit dated/creepy to me. Reminiscent of the dialogue in old b/w movies. Or the vomit-inducing campaigns by retailers enjoining all their staff to say "Have a nice day!" to the point it no longer means anything at all. I don't mind "Have a good day", though. – FumbleFingers Jan 6 '12 at 23:19
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up vote 1 down vote

Having just used/heard this phase for the dozenth time today, I can attest that the common American phrase is "Have a good weekend" (good, great, etc, depending on what exactly you want to say).

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