How to write emails in English

The first class in our guide to writing emails in English. Here we cover the basic rules for writing a professional email. We help you avoid the simple mistakes that too many people make!

Are you still using Google Translate to write your emails in English? This is not professional! It is also slow, and in some cases it can be dangerous. What happens if the translation is incorrect? Will you notice the mistakes??

If you use English a lot at work it's a good idea to learn how to write emails in English. In this course we'll teach you how to write simple, effective emails which people will be able to easily understand.

Emails and traditional letters

Should we write an email in the same way that we write a letter? This was a question which many people asked themselves in the early days of the internet.

Nowadays, it's obvious that emails have a form and style of their own. However, in order to understand how to start an email correctly let's review the rules for starting a letter. 

How to start a letter in English

In the old days, before email, before the fax, before the telex, people in business would write letters to each other.  The rules of etiquette were very well established because people had been writing letters for hundreds of years.

How to start a letter in English

• Dear + NAME*
• Dear Sir/Madam - If we did not now the name of the person we were writing to.
• To whom it may concern - Similar to Dear Sir/Madam but more formal.

*The titles: 

Mr - For any man

Mrs - For a married woman

Miss - For an unmarried woman

Ms - For any woman, married or unmarried

Ending a letter

The way we end a letter depends on how we started it.

If we start the letter with the name of a person, we end the letter with:

• Yours sincerely

If we start the letter with "Dear Sir/Madam" or "To whom it may concern" we end the letter with:

• Yours faithfully 

 

Example letters 1

Here's an example of a letter which starts with 'Dear + name':

Emails v Letters

We all know that emails break many of the rules which we had to obey when we wrote letters.  In general, emails are much less formal than letters.  However,  it's important to remember that emails have their own set of rules and conventions.  

A very formal email

Let's say we have to write a formal email. Perhaps it's an email we send when applying for a job, or perhaps it's an email to a very important client.  In this situation, a formal email will use many of the rules which we applied when writing letters. 

To start: "Dear + NAME" , "Dear Sir/Madam"
To finish: "Yours faithfully" o "Yours sincerely"

As we said before, if we start the email with "Dear Sir/Madam", we should finish with "Yours faithfully".  If we start the email with "Dear + NAME OF THE RECIPIENT" we should finish the email with "Yours sincerely"

For example: 

Remember that we use Yours faithfully if we haven't used the name of the recipient.  If we use their name ('Dear John, Dear Mr. Smith etc) the we will end the email with  Yours sincerely.

A formal email

If we want to be very polite, but not appear too old-fashioned we can change the way we end the email. Instead of "Yours sincerely" and "Yours faithfull" we can use "Best regards" o "Kind regards":

To start: "Dear xxxx"
To finish: "Best regards", "Kind regards"

A normal email

Imagine we are sending an email to a supplier who we have known for a long time.  We don't want to be so formal, but we also don't want to be too informal.  We want a tone which is polite and serious but not too rigid. This is the type of email which we will send several times a day.  It is the normal way to write a business email in the English language:

To start the email: "Hi xxxx" "Hello xxxx"
To finish the email: "Best regards", "Kind regards", "Regards"

Although it is more direct, we can also start and email with just the name of the recipient:

This form of starting an email is very common in the United States.

More great tips for writing emails in English

On this page we've just explained the basics about the structure of emails in English: how to start and how to finish emails. In the rest of this course we going to go into far more depth on how to write effective, professional emails in English. We have loads of advice and we also have lots of model emails which you can copy and use in your own job. Don't know where to start? Why not look at our article on great first lines? They say that you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression, so the first line in an email is very important. In our class will give you lots of examples of great opening lines, and will also talk about the big errors which you need to avoid.