Wedding salutation

[buzhongren]

Which is correct for wedding of young couple with these characters ie not worded another way:

"May you both live long and healthy lives"

愿二老福寿安康

愿二者福寿安康

I didnt like 二老 because it means 'a parent' ie someone already married I think

I like 二者 beause it means 'both of them' but it can also mean 'neither' so 'may neither live long and healthy lives' which isnt good

xiele

Jim

[jbradfor]

I would say neither.

There are many "set sayings" Chinese use for weddings. You should find those (search here, or maybe others can help) and use them. It will sound much better than a translation from English.

If you really want to make your own, then I would recommend dropping the "二老"; Chinese greetings usually don't include the subject. And replace 愿 with 祝, or drop that as well.

[haitao]

i don't think either of them is appropriate.

"二位" gives sort of a feeling of indifference.

u can use “二位” instead.

[imron]

新人 is a way to refer to a newly married couple.

白头偕老 expresses more or less the meaning you want about living a long and happy life together.

Perhaps you could try something like:

祝两位新人白头偕老

Which you might use if for example you were giving a wedding speech and addressing all the guests. If you were just addressing the newly married couple specifically when you are saying/writing this, it's probably better to use something like,

祝你们俩白头偕老

but I am not a native speaker, so perhaps wait for some further feedback.

"二位" gives sort of a feeling of indifference.

u can use “二位” instead.

What is the difference?

[buzhongren]

Thanks to all.

jbradfor

The first string is a set phrase I got from the Internet. When I was looking around for a different 'both' I noticed the similarities between what I think and what was used. I thought maybe a typo getting propagated.

haitao

I think your two characters probably more appropriate in a broader sense.

imron

Thanks for the wedding couple characters. Your string makes better English sense. In a way I would use that and let people throw their toast glasses at me if it didnt make sense.

xiele,

Jim

PS I am self taught in Chinese. Years ago I taught myself to use radicals to look up characters in a dictionary. I have several grammar books I thumb through now and then. Ive been lurking here for over a year. I worked on my pronunciation during the summer but I feel more comfortable at the keyboard.

[jbradfor]

The first string is a set phrase I got from the Internet. When I was looking around for a different 'both' I noticed the similarities between what I think and what was used. I thought maybe a typo getting propagated.

Ah.

Google.com has only 998 hits for "愿二老福寿安康"; this is too few to call it common.

Also, I've never heard of this before (which isn't saying much), maybe some one else can weigh in, but at least on google, this seems to be an expression for New Year, not weddings, e.g. http://daojiao.leahow.com/en/syyy/rcyy/43721.shtml : 新年父母祝福—愿二老福寿安康