Episode 19 How to make your English emails sound natural (Useful for business and general English)

Today we are talking about what to say after you've started your email. After 'Dear Sir' what comes next?  If we start with yesterday's beginning of: 'I hope you don't mind me getting in touch Jane' or 'Hello Jane, I hope you don't mind me getting in touch.' We can go on to say: How are you? I hope you're doing well. How are you? It's been a while. I hope everything is going well. Left over from letter writing we still use: I hope this email finds you well. I hope everything's going well at your end. For friends we've lost touch with or haven't spoken to for a long time we can use: 'Long time no see, how are you?' Next you want to explain why you're writing. I wondered if I could ask your opinion about something We've got a new product and I wondered if I could get your input on it. I'd love to pick your brain about a new project. It was so great to meet you at the conference in San Francisco. I wondered if we might get a coffee next week. I'd love to have a catch-up about the new team. This time let's start with, 'Sorry to bother you Jane' This means you think Jane is busy so we might go on to say: 'I know you're busy so I'll get right to the point.' 'I appreciate your time is valuable, so I'll make this quick.' Level 3: 'Dear Director Smith' Remember, wherever possible, keep your email concise. Because we've started with 'Dear' we've already shown a high level of politeness, so we don't have to say lots of words to show how polite we are. Dear Director Smith, I'm writing to invite you to our next conference. Dear Sir, I wanted to connect ahead of our new collaboration. Dear Mrs Smith, Your speech at the conference was so inspiring and I think our business goals align so I wanted to get in touch to discuss a collaboration. In addition to the 'dear' we're using a higher level of grammar: I'm writing to invite you to our next conference rather than 'I wanted to invite you' or 'will you come to'. Additional Vocabulary broach - to carefully begin or start talking about something, often a subject you feel uncomfortable discussing pick your brain - idiom - to ask you some questions and get your opinion (suggests the person is more knowledgeable than you about the topic) jig your memory - idiom - help you remember something a nice flowery email - when we use 'flowery' in this way we mean overly detailed, we might also use 'frilly'. I'll circle back - idiom - I'll come back to this later