E mails starting and finishing

Question

If you are writing an email to someone that you don't know, how would you start and finish the email?

This is agood question that I have often asked myself as I have done a lot of e-mailing.. - annierats, Nov 23, 2014

Answer 1

For an e-mail to an unknown company I simply start with Buenos diás/buenas tardes ( assuming I don't know the person's name). If I know the person's name I start with ' Estimado Snr López .. ' but this is very formal. it would be fine to write Querida señora Alvárez Gonzales..

Buenos días Carlos .. also seems to work well. I end with Saludos or un saludo cordial .

I'm not at all sure this is in any way correct but they seem to answer me in the same way, more or less. If it is a friend I end it with un abrazo/un abrazo fuerte/besos/ un besito.. Even on the phone you hear people finishing converstaions with ' un beso'.

Answer 2

This took less than 5 seconds to google. link

:) - rac1, Nov 23, 2014

Good, but that's for letters, E-mail is less formal, normally, in Europe, anyway. - annierats, Nov 23, 2014

It's been years since I last received a physical letter, so for me at least, all correspondence is digital. That includes e-mails to friends, professors, companies, my bank and governmental institutes, job applications etc etc. - Suzanne_Romijnders, Nov 23, 2014

I write all but the first as formally as I would a letter. Once a professor or client service employee introduces themself using their first name, I will switch to a less formal tone. In your 1st email, a bit too formal is better than a bit too informal.. - Suzanne_Romijnders, Nov 23, 2014