I make a lot of mistakes when writing work emails and I often use "donc" or "alors" without really knowing what I'm doing. Is there a difference between the two or are they the same? It bugs me not being sure.
You guys explained the difference really well, but here's something practical: when you're not sure between the two, try replacing it with "consequently" (for "donc") or "at that moment" (for "alors"). If it sounds weird, you've got the wrong word 😅 A real hack for emails: "donc" works when you want to show that one thing causes another ("you miss a deadline, donc I have to push back the meeting"), while "alors" is more for the order of events or a reaction ("we got the email, alors we changed our plans"). In practice with professional emails, "donc" is way safer and more commonly used, so if you're in doubt just go with that and you'll rarely get it wrong.
Do you really use both of them together all the time in your emails, or are you just torn between the two? Well, the difference is that "therefore" marks a **logical consequence** (you do something and a result necessarily follows from it), whereas "then" is more **temporal or circumstantial** (it happens at the same time or it's a reaction to what was just said). For example: "I forgot my file, therefore I need to get it" (direct consequence), versus "We were discussing the project, then Marie had a good idea" (it happened during). In a professional email, "therefore" is safer because it sounds more formally logical, whereas "then" can sometimes seem a bit too conversational. Personally, I always reread my stuff by asking myself if I could swap the word for "as a result" - if it works, that's a good sign that it was "therefore" you needed!
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