E-mails phrase bank 1 Basics Formal / Neutral [Informal IName IDear Mr/Ms/Mrs Dupuis IHi/Hello Mary Dear Mary IMary,... (or no name at all) Previous [Thank you for your email of ... [Thanks for your email. jcontact Further to your last email, ... [Re your email, .. II apologize for not getting in |Sorry I haven't written for contact with you before now. ages, but I’ve been really busy. Reason for _ [I am writing in connection with [Just a short note about ... I am writing with regard to .. lin reply to your email, here lare .. ‘our name was given to me by lWe would like to point out that I'm writing about ... lHere’s the ... you wanted It got your name from . Please note that ... IGiving Ii'm writing to let you know lust a note to say ... information | [that ... lWe can confirm that .. We are able to confirm that ... |Good news! I am delighted to tell you that |Unfortunately, ... We regret to inform you that |Attachments [Please find attached my I’ve attached ... report. Here is the ... you wanted. I’m sending you ... as a pdf file. Asking for __|Could you give me some [Can you tell me a little more information information about ... jabout ... It would like to know ... I'd like to know I’m interested in Please send me . Ireceiving/finding out ... Requests [I'd be grateful if you could ... [Please could you ... It wonder if you could ... [Could you ...? Do you think I could have ... ? |Can I have ...? [Thank you in advance for your |I’d appreciate your help on this. help in this matter. Promising I will... I'l ws laction I'l investigate the matter. _ [I'll look into it. I will contact you again I'll get back to you soon.E-mails phrase bank shortly. lOffering help Would you like me to lif you wish, I would be happy Ito... lLet me know whether you lwould like me to ... [Do you want me to Shall 1 ...? lLet me know if you'd like me to ling) IGive my regards to ... Best wishes Regards Final Thank you for your help. [Thanks again for ... comments —_[Do not hesitate to contact us_|Let me know if you need lagain if you require any furtherjanything else. information. Lust give me a call if you have Please feel free to contact me any questions. My number is ... lif you have any questions. My ldirect line is ... [Close I'm looking forward to ...(+ |Looking forward to ... (+ ing) Best wishes to .. ISpeak to/see you soon. IBye (for now)/All the best Negotiating a project Would you be able to [Asking for What are your usual charges (fees/rates) for ...? information |Can you give me some more information about ...? Requests [Do you think you could point Emphasizing a main [The main thing for me i My main concern at this stage is ... iS... Asking for a suggestion [What do you think is th How do you think we should deal with this? e best way forward? Making a suggestion Why don’t you ...? What about if we Negotiating: being firm Il understand what you're saying about ... (but ... ) It can see what you're saying, but ... Negotiating: being flexible |We would be prepared to ... (if... I am willing to ... (if ...) ) Negotiating: lagreeing [Okay, I’m happy with that for now. [That’s fine. Next steps I'll be in touch again soon with more details. Let's talk next week and see how things are going.E-mails phrase bank 3 [Closing I look forward to working with you. I''m sorry that we couldn't use your services this time, lbut I hope there will be another opportunity. Checking understanding \clarification [Technical [Did you get my last message sent on ...? problems Sorry, you forgot to attach the file. Can you send it again? IT got your email, but I can’t open the attachment. IDid you mean to send this? I don’t want to open it in case it’s Jgot a virus. Asking for __|I’m not sure what you meant by ...? could you clarify? Which ... do you mean? I don’t understand this point. Can you explain in a little more ldetail? Are you sure about that? (Giving \clarification Sorry, what I meant was ..., not ... It thought ..., but I may be wrong I'll check and get back to you, [The correct information is given below. Please amend your records accordingly Sorry, forget my last email. You're right. [Close It hope this clarifies the situation. |Get back to me if there's anything else. Arrangements Meetings Formal / Neutral Informal Reason for [I’m writing to arrange a time for [Just a quick note to arrange a lour meeting. Itime to meet. What time would be convenient _|When would suit you? lor you? Suggesting [Could we meet on (day) inthe __ How about (day) at (time)? ltime/place |(morning) at (time)? lAre you free sometime next lweek? Saying when |I would be able to attend the I’m free Thursday am. lyou are/ are |meeting on Thursday morning. __ [I won't be around until after not free I'm out of the office until 2pm. lunch. lAny time after that would be fine. [Any time after hat is okay. [I’m afraid I can’t manage next Sorry, can’t make it nextplarase bank 4 Monday. Monday. Confirming [I'd like to confirm ... [Thursday is good for me. [That's fine. I will call/email you _|That should be okay. I'll get tomorrow to confirm the details. |back to you if there’s a problem. [Changing [This is to let you know that I will [Re our meeting next week, I'm larrangement|not be able to attend the next _afraid I can’t make Thursday. Is meeting next Thursday. How about ... instead? lt wonder if we could move it to _|Sorry for the inconvenience. 2 It apologize for any inconvenience lcaused. [Close II look forward to meeting you in [See you in Brussels. Brussels. Give me a call if anything lLet me know if you need to changes. lchange the arrangements. Invitations Formal / Neutral Informal lUnfortunately, I have another lappointment on that day. Please laccept my apologies. It hope we will have the opportunity to Imeet on another occasion in the near future. I am sure that the meeting will lbe a great success. [Inviting |We would be very pleased if you could {I’m writing to invite you to .. lcome to .. Would you like to come to ...? It would like to invite you to ... / attend [Please let me know if you can Jour ... Imake it. Please let me know if you will be able |to attend. Prepare [Before the meeting it would be useful if|Please prepare ... before the lyou could prepare ... Imeeting. IIt would be helpful if you could bring [Please bring to the meeting ... lAcceptin [Thank you for your kind invitation. _ [Thanks a lot for the invitation. lg [The date you suggest is fine. [The date’s fine for me. I would be delighted to attend the II’d love to come to the meeting. meeting. I am sure it will be very It sounds like a great idea. luseful. Refusing|Thank you for your kind invitation. _|Thanks a lot for your kind invitation. Unfortunately, I have something else in my schedule lon that day. It hope we can meet up soon, Good luck with the meeting!Writing Styles E-mails phrase bank 5 langlo-Saxon lorigin jinform / information / obtain / loccupation / possess / provide repair / request / requirements / verify Formal / Neutral [Informal Example Thank you for your email [Thanks for the email. phrases received 12 Feb. Re... lWith regard/reference to Please could you ... It would be grateful if you could|i’m sorry to tell you that ... .. I'm sorry for ... We regret to advise you that Could you . = You haven't ... Please accept our apologies for [Don’t forget that ... I... It need to... I was wondering if you could {I might |.» Shall I .. We note that you have not .., [But, ... / Also, ... / So, ... We would like to remind you _|If you'd like more details, let that... Ime know. lit is necessary forme to... |See you next week. IIt is possible that I will Would you like me to ...? However, .../In addition, ... / [Therefore, .. lif you require any further linformation, please do not hesitate to contact me. Ir look forward to meeting you Inext week Latin / |Assistance / due to / enquire / |Help / because of / ask / tell / facts / get / job / have / give / ifix / ask for / needs / check (prove) Direct / Indirect Direct Indirect: polite / diplomatic [Shall I IDo you need any help with .. Requests Can you ...? [Could you ...? Please could you ... It was wondering if you could ... Asking for |CanI...? Is it all right if ...2 permission |Could I It wonder if I could . loffering help |Can I |Would you like me to ..? Making a suggestion What about (Shall we ...? -. (Fing)? lWhy don’t we ...? Perhaps we should ...?E-mails phrase bank 6 Softening a [There is a problem. I'm afraid there is a small problem, istrong [That will be very lit seems there is a slight problem comment _expensive. [That might be quite expensive. We can't do that . Won't that be a bit expensive? [That gives us very little {I’m not sure we can do that. time. lActually, that doesn’t give us much lit will be better to ask time. Wouldn't it be better to ask Heidi. lHeidi2 It disagree. It can see what you're saying, but ... IDon’t you think that ...? [To be honest, I think it might be better to ... Commercial Request for information (customer) [Saying how you got |the contact We met last Thursday on your stand at the Munich [Trade Fair. II am emailing you off your website, which I found Ithrough Google. g reason for 9 We are a manufacturer / supplier / provider of ... We lare interested in ... We are a Turkish company exporting to the EU, and we Ineed ... |General requests We would be grateful for some information about ... Please send us information about your product range land prices. |Specific requests lin particular, we would like to know ... Please send full details of your prices, discounts, terms lof payment and delivery times. Could you also say whether there is any minimum order. |Close lAn early reply would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to an early reply, and am sure that there is a market for your products here in Hungary. Giving information (supplier) [Thanks [Thank you for your email of 4 June inquiring about .. |Giving factual lWe can quote a price of ... CIF / FOB Istanbul information lWe can delivery by ... (date) / within ... (period ofE-mails phrase bank Itime) [The goods will be shipped 3 days from receipt of a firm lorder. lWe can offer a discount of ... on orders over ... . We require payment by bank transfer / letter of credit. lour normal procedure is to ... lOur normal terms for first-time customers are .., lWe can supply the items you require directly from Istock. Saying what you are lattaching II am attaching a document that gives full details of ... Il am attaching our current catalogue and price list as a pdf file. Highlighting one or |two key points [You will see that ... You will note that our line of .... is on special offer. [Answering specific questions lYou will also note that ... Our experience in this field includes ... lWe dispatch the goods within 24 hours of a firm order, jand for first-time customers our minimum order is $ 1,000, Il am afraid that model is no longer available. However, [Close |We feel sure that ... May I suggest that I call you at lyour convenience to discuss the matter further? lif you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. My direct line is... Making an order (customer) [Open Thank you for your recent email, and we accept your quotation, Our completed order form is attached, and we give full bank details below. Close _ [Please acknowledge receipt of this order. Confirming an order (supplier) lopen ‘our order has been received. We can confirm that your goods have been shipped. lYou can track shipping details on our website. Due to exceptional demand these items are temporarily out of stock. We hope to be able to ship your order within ... days and will keepE-mails phrase bank 8 cause. lyou fully informed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may [Close We are confident that the goods will meet your expectations. Should there be any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, either lby email or phone Asking for payment (supplier) First reminder - open We are writing concerning a payment of $12,600 for invoice humber KJ678 which is now overdue. A copy of the invoice is lattached. lAccording to our records, the sum of $4,500 is still loutstanding on your account First reminder |- action Please send a bank transfer to settle the account, or an lexplanation of why the balance is still outstanding. If you have already dealt with this matter, please disregard this jemail. We could appreciate your cooperation in resolving this Imatter as soon as possible, lSecond/third [On (date) I wrote to you regarding your company’s unpaid reminder - laccount , amounting to $4,500. May we please remind you jopen jthat this amount is still outstanding. It wish to draw your attention to my previous emails of (dates) about the overdue payment on your account. We are very concerned that the matter has not yet receive your jattention. Second/third We need a bank transfer in full settlement without further reminder - —_|delay. laction IClearly, this situation cannot be allowed to continue, and we Imust ask you to take immediate action to settle your laccount. lif you have any queries on this mater, please do not hesitate Ito contact me. Thank you for your cooperation. Final demand — jopen Following my emails of (dates) I must inform you that we have still not received payment for the outstanding sum of $4,500. It wrote to you on (dates) regarding the balance of $12,600 lon your account. I attach copies of both emails. This sum is lhow two months overdue. We are very concerned that the Imatter has not yet received your attention. Final demand — jaction lUnless we receive payment within seven days, we shall have Ino alternative but to take legal action to recover the money. lin the meantime, your existing credit facilities have been[E-mails phrase bank 9 suspended. Complaints and Apologies Complaining (customer) [open [I am writing ... iin connection with my order FS690 which arrived this morning. {to complain about the quality of a product I bought from your website. {to complain about the poor service we received from your company. Ito draw your attention to the negative attitude of some people in your customer services section [Complaint |Our order dated 16 September clearly stated that we wanted 11,000 items, however you . [The goods were faulty / damaged / in poor condition. [There seems to be an error in the invoice /a misunderstanding. [The equipment I ordered has still not been delivered, despite Imy phone call you last week to say that it is needed urgently. [The product I received was well below the standard expected. To make matters worse, when I called your company staff ... Request for Please replace the faulty goods as soon as possible. laction We must insist on an immediate replacement / full refund. lUniess I receive the goods by the end of this week, I will have Ino choice but to cancel my order. [Close Ir hope that you will deal with this matter promptly as it is |causing me considerable inconvenience. Apologizing (supplier) [Open II am writing in relation to your recent complaint, |Apologizing It was very concerned to learn about ... Please accept my sincere lapologies. It would like to apologize for the inconvenience you have suffered. Denying __|We appreciate that this has caused you considerable inconvenience, lresponsibilit but we cannot accept any responsibility in this matter. y. Promising — |Can you leave it with me? I'll look into the matter and get back to laction lyou tomorrow I have looked into the matter and ... It have spoken to the staff involved, and ... |We will send replacement items / give you a refund immediately,[E-mails phrase bank 10 I can assure you that this will not happen again. |We're having a temporary problem with ... . We're doing everything |we can to sort it out. |Compensati [To compensate for the inconvenience, we would like to offer you ... lon [Close [Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. Please accept Imy assurance that it will not happen again. lOnce again, I hope you will accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused It very much hope you will continue to use our services in the future. lif you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact Ime on my direct line... Personal Being Friendly You heard something, but you are __ [it seems that ... Apparently, ... not sure Something is true, but surprising Actually, .., In fact, ... Something is obvious or already __[Obviously, ... Of course ... known |Good/ bad fortune lUnfortunately, ... Luckily, Saying what you really think [To be honest, ... Frankly, .. Going back to a topic |Well, ... So, ... Anyway, .. [Changing the topic Anyway, ... So, ... By the way, [Summarizing with the most Anyway, ... Basically, .. important point Asking for advice Formal/Neutral [Informal lopen I'd like your advice about a__|I've got a bit of a problem. problem I have Asking for —_|I was wondering if you had Do you have any ideas about ladvice lany ideas about ...? 2 What would you advise me to |What should I do? ldo?E-mails phrase bank in IClose Please write back when you _ [Please email me when you get have the time and let me —_the chance know what you think. Giving advice [Formal/Neutral Informal lopen IT was sorry to hear about your _ [I’m sorry you're having such a current difficulties. lhard time at the moment. IGiving I think it might be a good idea to |I think you should ... ladvice ee What about ... (+ing)? Have you thought of ... (+ing)? Result [This would mean that ... [That way, ... Options __[I think this option would be I think it’s better than ... lpreferable to ... (+ing) |(+ing) close IT hope I have been of some help. |I hope I've helped a bit. Suggestions Making a I think we should / 1 suggest that we / Let's go to suggestion IShall we / Perhaps we could/Why don’t we go to . It suggest... /How about going to ...? Accepting lit’s a great idea! It think your idea would work really well. lit might be worth trying. Rejecting li’m not so sure about your idea. lit sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think it would work in practice. lit sounds like a good idea, but I can see one or two problems. Special situations [Thanks Dust a quick note to say many thanks for ... I really appreciate everything that you have done. [Good tuck Good luck with ...I would like to take this opportunity to wish you levery success in the future.E-mails phrase bank 2 is: [Congratulation [Many congratulations on your promotion / new job. II was delighted to hear the news about ... \Well done! Best wishes Please give my best wishes/regards to ... Bad news IT was so sorry to hear about ... Il was really sorry to hear you're not well ... Hope you feel better lsoon. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know, Job Application [Greeting [Dear Sir/Madam [Reason for With reference to your advertisement on the ... website, I am interested in applying for the post of... Your II am 26 years old and am currently studying for a degree in... at... background |University. jand |For the last two months I have been working as a... at... . lexperience |The job _|I am interested in this job because .. itself I feel that I would be well-suited for this job/have a lot of experience in Referring to I have attached my CV as a Word document. You will notice that I lyour CV well as ... . You will also notice that ... . Final IT would be grateful if you would consider my application. comments [You will see from my CV that two people can be contacted as lreferences, one is ... and the other is from ... . I am available for interview in .../ by phone any weekday afternoon, land you can email me or telephone me on the number below. Close It look forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully Reports Report structure [Introduction / [As requested at the Board meeting of 18 April, here is my Background report. [The report will discus / consider / describe / analyze / review [The report is based on ...E-mails phrase bank 13 I have divided the report into three sections. Findings [The findings / figures / results / investigations show that [It appears that ... . This has led to a situation where ... [The graph/table shows that ... ISignposts [As can be seen in table 1 / section 2/ figure 3, ... las mentioned above, ... / ..., see below. |...and I will discuss this in more detail below /in section 3.2. conclusion / It (would like to) suggest recommend that ... IRecommendatio |My specific recommendations are as follows. Ins [Closing Please have a look at the report and let me have your |comments comments. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Linking words Sequence Firstly / secondly / finally [Talking generally lin general / usually / on the whole [Contrast [However / nevertheless / on the other hand [Adding another point _ [In addition / moreover / on another point Examples For example / for instance / e.g. Alternatives Either ... or ... / alternatively / instead of ... situation Real (surprising) In fact, / actually, / as a matter of fact Something is obvious __|Clearly / obviously / of course Most important point — [Especially / above all / in particular Rephrasing lin other words / that is to say /1.e. IResult/consequence |As a result / therefore / for this reason INew topic lin relation to / regarding / with reference toCareful, balanced style E-mails phrase bank 4 [Giving both sides of an largument lin general .. lon the whole however ... but... Making a statement less general Many / some ... lUsually / typically / often ... Making a statement less Icertain It is possible / probable that ... lit seems / appears that .. .. tends to be... Making a comparison less Istrong [Substantially / considerably / much (+ comparative ladjective) Significantly / relatively (+ comparative adjective) Marginally / slightly (+ comparative adjective) Concluding [On balance, ... \Taking all the above points into consideration, ...