How to write professional emails in English

In this practical English writing lesson, you will learn some of the most common email phrases you can use to sound professional. If you work in any type of business environment, there’s a good chance that you use email on a regular basis. However, many people aren’t familiar or comfortable with the formality or informality of email communication. I will teach you a wide range of business email vocabulary, phrases, and sentences often used by native English speakers. Here are some examples: “as discussed”, “to follow up on our previous discussion”, “this is to inform you that...”, “Thanks for the update”, “Thanks for looking into that”, “Thanks for following up”, “I’ll get back to you”, “Keep me posted”, and many more. This is an essential lesson that will help you write like a professional in almost any workplace.

Next, watch my video for advanced professional email writing!    • C1 Advanced English for Professional ...  

TRANSCRIPT

Oh, there's free cake in the staff room? Thanks for letting me know. See you there. Yeah, free cake. All right. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on writing a business or professional email in English. Now, this is useful for those of you who are just starting a corporate job, or if you are looking to work in an English environment where emails are constant. So, I use my email every day. I can tell you 100% that I have used all of these at one point or another in my emailing career, we'll say. So, I've sent thousands of emails, and I've used all of these.

So, these are phrases that you can use in internal emails between yourself and your colleagues, or between yourself and someone who works with your company. So, maybe you know someone who is selling, you know, technology to your company, like printers or computers; maybe there's someone who supplies paper for your company and you have to interact with them, so you can use these phrases and expressions with them. All right?

So, first we'll start with the greeting. We have: "Hello", "Hi", "Hey, Steve". Steve - these are all for Steve. So, you notice... If you're wondering: "Why didn't you put 'Dear'? Why didn't you put 'To whom it may concern'?" You could still use those. I guess it depends on your own personal comfort with formality. Having worked, like, you know, in Canada and exchanging emails with people in the United States, most people are comfortable with a "Hello" or a "Hi". Only use a "Hey" for someone you know. So, these are in level of formality.

Next... All right, so one thing you might do in an email is to introduce a new topic or to inform someone of something; maybe not just one person, maybe a group of people, maybe a whole department. So, for example: "This is to inform you that..." Very general. So, maybe someone has received a promotion in your company. This is something you might see from your boss; or if you are a boss or a manager, you might send this to your team. "This is to inform you that", you know... Let's say Rosa; you have an employee named Rosa. "This is to inform you that Rosa has been promoted to the position of..." Okay? So you're giving information to your team.

This one: "Just to let you know"... Now, this is very informal. So, only send this to people you know well, people within your company, maybe a friend in the company. So: "Just to let you know" is a much more informal, casual way that you can use in an email, instead of: "This is to inform you that..." Okay? So, for example: "Hey. Just to let you know, I'm not here on Friday. Please see me if you need anything from me before Friday." Okay?

Also, you're introducing a topic, or informing your company, or someone of something, so: "Hey, Steve. Good news!", "Hey, Steve. Bad news.", "Hey, Steve. I've got good news.", "I've got bad news." Now, you notice, here, I used an exclamation after "Good news", you know, it's a good idea to make it seem exciting, so: "Good news! You know, I just got promoted." Okay? Or: "Good news! I'm getting a raise." Okay? Something like this. "Bad news. We're not getting pizza for free today.", "Bad news. I can't make lunch, sorry." Okay? "I can't make lunch." It doesn't mean you're creating lunch, you're making lunch; it means: "I can't go to lunch with you." Okay? So, you have: "This is to inform you that...", "Just to let you know...", "Good news!", "Bad news.", "I've got good news.", "I've got bad news." Okay? […]