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, |
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, |
Hi Babak,
I'm afraid it's difficult for me to give you a definitive answer to this question, as it really depends on the kind of relationship you have with your colleague. In some cultures, an informal message from a subordinate to someone above them in the hierarchy is acceptable, but in others it is not. You might want to consider how you would do it if you were writing in Farsi and then do the same in English -- assuming that your colleague is also from Iran. Does that make sense? I'd also say that, in general, it's better to be too formal than it is to be too informal.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Maya_Maya,
I think the vocative comma is used less consistently than in the past but most style guides still include it. A lot depends on the context. In formal writing, the comma should certainly be used. In informal writing, it is often omitted. In certain media, such as online interaction, punctuation is less consistently used.
You can find a discussion of the topic here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello XuMinHa,
'Just thought' is 'I just thought' with the subject left out, which is common in informal speaking. People often use 'I just thought' to soften what they say -- see this page for an explanation of this and other uses of 'just'. The idea is that we don't want to assume the other person will be interested in what we say, so we use 'just' to make our suggestion seem less important. That is how Hairuddin used 'just' in the sentence you mention.
'Just a thought' is 'It's just a thought'. Here, too, 'just' is used to soften and the idea is similar: I'm not sure I'm right, but this is an idea I have.
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team