Reply in Spanish

ooh dear - the new TT does do funny things! The hyperlinked section is meant to be in brackets. And sorry about the accents – it all looked OK before I posted it!

Dear ----
Many thanks for these pictures. They period is a little too late, unfortunately, but I really appreciate your help!
All the best

Estimado/a xxx

Muchas gracias por las fotos que me ha enviado.
(they period???? do you mean the period they were taken ? is not clear)
El periodo es un poco tarde ( this makes no sense since i do not understand what you mean by THEY PERIOD) desgraciadamente, pero aprecio realmente su ayuda.

Lo saluda atte.

xxxx

itsa, "They period..." is just a typo for "The period...." Period here means "era" or a specific time span, known to both the writer and the reader, probably earlier identified by something like this, "The 1920 to 1930 period was a time of turmoil." and then only referred to as "The period." in all later correspondence/discussion. English seems to use more of these "writer/speaker designed/designated pronouns" as a short of "shorthand" than does Spanish.

One example I found in Spanish, "el periodo de posguerra" -- "the postwar period", in later correspondence/discussion between two folks in English, would only be referred to a "the period", since the folks involved already knew what that referred to. I'm not certain, but I don't THINK this is common in Spanish. It's VERY common in English.

A VERY stumbling translation on my part, would be, "los fotos son de un periodo despues lo que necesito, pero..."

I would use posterior instead of despues which would not apply ( according to my pov) in here.
Gracias Maz, I did not understand ifit was my lack of English or a typo.

Assuming that mazgringo's explanation of "they period" is valid, I would reply as follows:

"Estimada (name),

Le agradezco muchísimo las fotografías enviadas. Lamentablemente corresponden a un período un poco posterior pero igualmente aprecio sinceramente su ayuda.

Le deseo todo lo mejor y reciba mis cordiales saludos
toom"

Sorry, yes that was a typo. Mazgringo's explanation is correct. I did mean "the period". Period here refers to period of history (the pictures she sent all date from the 16th century but I needed pictures from the 13th–14th century).

Thanks for the suggestions. It just seems so much more friendly to make a bit of an effort to reply in Spanish, rather than just assuming she speaks English! So many thanks for the help.

itsa, Yeah, I thought and thought before reluctantly using "despues". Anterior and posterior are just such "formal" pedantic words in English that I find it difficult to use (even REMEMBER to use) them in ordinary Spanish. My kids are always correcting me.

Feliz Navidad (deleted post)

Edited by: El_Gallo