Starting and finishing emails
Here are some important points to consider when starting and finishing an email.
Formal or informal?
We write a formal email when we want to be polite, or when we do not know the reader very well. A lot of work emails are formal. We write informal emails when we want to be friendly, or when we know the reader well. A lot of social emails are informal. Here are some examples of formal and informal messages:
| Formal | Informal |
|---|---|
| An email to a customer A job application An email to your manager A complaint to a shop An email from one company to another company |
A birthday greeting to a colleague |
Before you start writing an email, decide if you want to write a formal email or an informal one.
Layout and punctuation
Starting an email: We normally write a comma after the opening phrase. We start a new line after the name of the person we’re writing to.
Finishing an email: We normally write a comma after the closing phrase. We start a new line to write our name at the end.
| Formal | Informal |
|---|---|
|
Dear Mr Piper, |
Hi Tim, |
Phrases for starting and finishing
Here are some phrases which we use for starting and finishing emails. We use these in formal and informal emails:
| Starting phrases | Dear Tim, Good morning Tim, |
| Ending phrases | Regards, With best wishes, With many thanks and best wishes, |
You also need to know which phrases to use only in a formal email or an informal one:
| Formal | Informal | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting phrases | Dear Mr Piper, Dear Sir or Madam, |
Hi Tim, Hi there Tim, Morning/Afternoon/Evening Tim, Hello again Tim, |
| Ending phrases | Yours sincerely, Yours faithfully, Yours truly, |
Rgds, Cheers, Bye for now, See you soon, |
Comments
Hello! Good tests. I like it too. Very useful information, when we write a letter official and not official, the rules of politeness of writing are very powerless to improve the skills of English writing.
Hello all,
I am new member of learn English, and i hope to develop my language as a native.
Dear "SOMEONE"
I want to meet you. Because I want to avoid the habit of different countries.
With best wishes, Akmal Karimov
Nice
I find I am thrown off by what should be correct punctuation. Perhaps this is dealt with. I haven't discovered it. Also, I wonder if there is a section that helps above the intermediate levels. And this is confusing to know when using 'I or me', 'who or whom' and that type of problem.
Hello Asaph,
Punctuation can be confusing, can't it? We don't have pages devoted to this topic, but we make sure our texts are appropriately punctuated, so you can see good examples as you read and if you have any questions about the punctuation then you can always ask quoting the appropriate section.
~
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I can say that it is more common to start an email with "dear" and after you get a response move to a simpler "hi" greeting. Also, when you write an email some information/ numbers/ refer to polls then you should also try to cite where you took it from ( https://-----------------) since it is a good practice if you are headed towards academia.
Hello Amanda
These are very useful ideas -- thanks for sharing them here!
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
I really enjoy the samples and exercises!
Hi there,
I would like to know if the ending phrase: "Kind Regards," it is formal or informal.
Thanks!
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