Making a letter more personal

Normally, if you know the person that you are writing to and have met him / her socially, you will want to make your letter less formal and more friendly. Less formal letters often have a different structure from formal business letters.

Dear Mr. / Mrs. / Miss / Ms …   An opening This mentions your feelings about the last contact you had with each other.   The main message This says why you are writing now and gives the details.   The close This talks about the future and often mentions some personal information.   Yours sincerely / Best wishes

Note: If you have not recently had contact with each other, you can open by saying why you are writing (see below).

5.3. Personal business letters: the openingHere are some ways to open a less formal letter. You can use each phrase to talk about the last time you contacted – or could not contact – each other.

Thank you for your letter / telephone call / telex.
It was a pleasure to	(meet you at / on …)
It was good to	(see you again at / on …)
	(hear from you again.)
It was a pity that	(we did not have more time to talk at / on …)
I am sorry that	(I missed you when you visited my office.)

 

After each phrase you can say something about what you said – or could not say – to each other. Like this:

Thank you for your letter. It was very interesting to hear about the new developments at Wentol Ltd.   It was a pity that I missed you when you visited my office last week. I would have liked to have heard all your news.   It was a pleasure to have dinner with you last Thursday. I think we had a very useful discussion.   It was good to talk to you on the telephone today. I was sorry to hear that you had not been well.   Thank you for your telex. I was pleased to hear that you will be coming to visit us next month.

 

1.	Fill in the gaps in these openings with a suitable phrase.
	a)	____________________ to talk to you on the telephone this morning. ____________________ to hear that you are enjoying your new job.
	b)	____________________ your letter. ____________________ to hear that you have had so many problems in your office.
	c)	____________________ to see you at the conference last week. ____________________ that we did not have enough time to talk.
	d)	____________________ that you could not come to the meeting on Saturday. I am sure that you would have found it quite interesting.
	e)	____________________ to meet you yesterday. I found many of your ideas very interesting.
2.	What opening would you write in each of these situations?
	a)	You met the addressee on Thursday. He told you that he had been ill.
	b)	You had dinner with the addressee last week at his house. He told you about his holiday in Iceland.
	c)	You visited the addressee in his office last week but he could only talk to you for five minutes.
	d)	You received a letter from the addressee this morning. He told you that he had been promoted.