Useful phrases and vocabulary for writing business letters (FORMAL).
Salutation
• Dear Mr. Brown
• Dear Sir
• Dear Madam
• Dear Sir or Madam
Starting
• We are writing
o to inform you that ...
o to confirm ...
o to request...
o to enquire about ...
• I am contacting you for the following reason.
• I recently read/heard about ..... and would like to know
...
• I would be interested in (obtaining / receiving) ...
• I am writing to tell you about ...
Referring to previous
contact
• Thank you for your letter of March 15.
• Thank you for contacting us.
• In reply to your request, ...
• Thank you for your letter regarding ...
• With reference to our telephone conversation
yesterday...
• Further to our meeting last week ...
Giving good news
• We are pleased to announce that ...
• You will be pleased to learn that ...
Giving bad news
• We regret to inform you that ...
• I'm afraid it would not be possible to ...
• Unfortunately we cannot / we are unable to ...
Complaining
• I am writing to complain about ...
• Please note that the goods we ordered on ( date )
have not yet arrived.
Apologizing
• We are sorry for the delay in replying to
• I regret any inconvenience caused (by) ...
Orders
• Thank you for your quotation of ...
• We are pleased to place an order with your company
for..
• Please confirm receipt of our order.
• Your order will be processed as quickly as possible.
