Business Writing
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A handful of fixed phrases opens and closes any business email professionally — as long as the opening and the closing sit on the same rung.
With a salutation such as "Dear Ms Weber" or "Dear Sir or Madam" and a matching sign-off such as "Kind regards" or "Yours faithfully". The opening and the closing must sit on the same level of formality.
Updated: July 2026
A2 · Business Writing · 10 min
A structured ten-slide lesson for A2 learners. Hear a real business email, meet the three registers from a tutor, then practise salutations, first lines, and sign-offs across six interactive drills before a final five-question quiz. The whole arc is under ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
An English business email is judged in three places before anyone reads the actual content: the salutation, the first line, and the sign-off. These three elements frame the message, and they signal instantly how well you know the conventions. Small mistakes in the middle of an email are usually forgiven — a wrong salutation or a missing closing is noticed by everyone. The good news: openings and closings are almost entirely formulaic. You do not have to compose anything freely; you only have to pick the right formula for the right situation. At A2 level, roughly eight fixed bricks cover nearly everything: three salutations, two first lines, and three sign-offs. If you know those bricks and consistently keep the opening and the closing on the same level of formality, your emails read as professional — however simple the English in between may be. This lesson drills exactly those bricks, in exactly the order they appear in a real email: salutation, first line, closing line, sign-off.
Think of English salutations as a ladder. At the very top sits "Dear Sir or Madam" — the opening for when you do not know the recipient's name, for example in a first enquiry to a company. One rung down comes "Dear Mr Smith" or "Dear Ms Weber": formal but personal, and the most common choice in everyday business. One detail matters here: "Mr" and "Ms" take the surname, never the first name — "Dear Mr John" is wrong. The middle of the ladder holds "Hello Anna", and at the bottom sits "Hi Anna" for colleagues you write to every day. For groups, use "Dear all" or the more relaxed "Hi everyone". In British English, a comma follows the salutation — and after it, unlike in German, a new sentence starts with a capital letter. Choose your rung by your relationship with the person, not by the topic: even an urgent complaint to a close colleague opens with "Hi", and even a harmless question to a company you have never met opens formally.
The first line after the salutation has one job: to say immediately what the email is about. The main tool for this is the fixed phrase "I am writing to" plus a verb: "I am writing to confirm our meeting", "I am writing to enquire about your courses", "I am writing to apply for the position". If you are replying to a message, open with thanks instead: "Thank you for your email" or "Thank you for your quick reply". You will very often read "I hope this email finds you well" — it is meant politely, but it has become so overused that many readers simply skip it. You may use it, but it does not replace the real first line: after the pleasantry, the reason for the email still has to come straight away. Long preambles do not sound more polite in English — only less clear. And at the other end of the message, right before the sign-off, a second fixed line earns its keep: "I look forward to hearing from you" — with the -ing form after "to", because "to" is a preposition here.
At the bottom of the email lives a rule that surprises many learners precisely because it is so mechanical: in British English, "Yours sincerely" closes an email that opens with a name ("Dear Ms Weber"), and "Yours faithfully" closes an email that opens without one ("Dear Sir or Madam"). You do not need to understand this pairing, only to apply it — it is pure convention, and it is expected exactly as stated. In everyday business, however, the most common sign-off is "Kind regards", a shade warmer than "Best regards"; either closes almost any business email to clients and partners. Between colleagues, a short "Best", a "Thanks", or simply your first name is enough. A comma follows the sign-off, and your name goes on a new line beneath it. Ending an email with no sign-off at all feels abrupt in English, almost rude — even in the shortest reply, native speakers will normally still put at least "Best" or "Thanks" above their name.
Four errors come up again and again with German-speaking learners. First: "Frau" is not automatically "Mrs". "Mrs" marks a married woman; if you do not know whether the recipient is married — and you almost never do — "Ms" is the correct, safe choice. Use "Mrs" only if the person writes it herself, for example in her signature. Second: capitalisation. German continues in lowercase after "Sehr geehrte Frau Weber,"; English starts a new sentence with a capital letter after "Dear Ms Weber,": "Dear Ms Weber, Thank you for your email." Third: "Dear Sirs" addresses only men and is considered outdated today — write "Dear Sir or Madam" instead when you do not know the name. Fourth: do not translate "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" word for word. "With friendly greetings" will be understood — but it also tells every reader instantly that the sender translated from German. The English equivalent is simply "Kind regards".
The real skill is not knowing individual formulas but combining them consistently. The opening and the closing are a pair: "Dear Sir or Madam" demands "Yours faithfully", "Dear Ms Weber" goes with "Yours sincerely" or "Kind regards", and "Hi Anna" is followed by "Best". A register clash — "Hi Anna" at the top, "Yours sincerely" at the bottom — is spotted instantly by native readers and comes across as unintentionally funny. When you reply to an email, a simple rule of thumb helps: mirror the other person's level of formality. If someone writes to you with "Hi" and "Best", you may answer just as casually; if they write with "Dear" and "Kind regards", you stay on that rung. Finally, a glance across the Atlantic: in very formal American letters, a colon follows the salutation ("Dear Mr. Smith:"), "Mr." and "Ms." take a full stop, and plain "Sincerely" serves as the formal sign-off. In email the difference is small, and the British forms taught in this lesson are understood everywhere.
The British rule is purely mechanical: if your email opens with a name ("Dear Ms Weber"), close with "Yours sincerely". If it opens without one ("Dear Sir or Madam"), close with "Yours faithfully". You do not need to understand the rule, only to apply it. In everyday business you can also sidestep both cases with "Kind regards" — it fits almost everywhere.
Almost always "Ms Weber". German "Frau" is neutral, but "Mrs" explicitly marks a married woman — and "Miss" an unmarried one. Since you usually do not know a business contact’s marital status, and it is none of your business anyway, "Ms" is the safe default. Use "Mrs" only if the person uses it herself, for example in her email signature.
With a capital — and that is exactly what feels wrong to German speakers. In German, the sentence grammatically continues after "Sehr geehrte Frau Weber,", so it carries on in lowercase. In English, a new sentence begins after the salutation: "Dear Ms Weber, Thank you for your email." The comma stays, but the first letter after it is always a capital.
Broadly no, in the details yes. In very formal American style, a colon follows the salutation instead of a comma ("Dear Mr. Smith:"), "Mr." and "Ms." take a full stop, and plain "Sincerely" is the standard formal sign-off — the sincerely/faithfully distinction is a British convention. In email the differences are small, and the British forms are what most learners in Europe are taught. They are understood on both sides of the Atlantic.
Salutations and sign-offs are the natural entry point into English business writing, because they appear in every single email. Straight after this, *out-of-office-message* (A2) is worth doing — the out-of-office notice uses exactly the same formulas inside a fixed frame. You can then practise the formal register in speech with *answering-the-phone* (A2). Once both feel solid, *tell-me-about-yourself* (B1) is the next step: introducing yourself properly in a professional context.
Because "Dear" in a salutation lost its literal meaning long ago. It is a frozen politeness formula: nobody reads "Dear Sir or Madam" as a declaration of affection — just as no German reader takes "Sehr geehrte Frau Weber" literally as a statement of deep reverence. Languages freeze formulas like these and use them purely as signals of register and respect. That is why you can safely write "Dear" to strangers — all it means is: this is a polite, well-ordered message.
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