How to write British and American business letters
Auch ohne DIN 5008 können Sie perfekte Briefe schreiben.
When you have to write a letter in English, you have the choice between writing in British (UK) or American (US) English. UK-English is used in most English-speaking countries, US-English is more or less restricted to the USA.
However, some companies which have adopted English as their corporate language mix the two forms.
The biggest differences are in
- the way the date is written
- the greeting and complimentary close
- the general layout of the letter
- the spelling of certain words punctuation
The date
In UK-English, the day comes before the month – so 05.04.2005 is the fifth day of April. In US-English, the month comes before the day, so the same date
would be the fourth day of May. To be on the safe side, Secretary Today recommends always writing the month out in full – 5 April 2005 (UK), April 5, 2005 (USA).
Greeting and complimentary close
In the UK
● If you don’t know the name of the recipient you write:
Dear Sirs, Dear Sir or Madam,
Dear Sir or Dear Madam and close with Yours faithfully
● If you know their name, you write Yours sincerely
In the USA
● If you don’t know the name of the recipient you write:
Gentlemen, Ladies and
Gentlemen, Dear Sir and close with Respectfully yours, Sincerely yours, Truly yours
● If you know their name, you write Sincerely yours
In both UK and US English, you write Regards, best regards, kind regards if you know the recipient personally.
The general layout
There is no DIN 5008 to tell you where to put the different parts of a letter, like the date, reference line, etc.
Spelling
Word endings
UK US
-our (colour, odour) -or (color, odor)
-tre (theatre, centre) -er (theater, center)
Punctuation
UK US
no punctuation after greeting colon after greeting
no punctuation after complimentary close comma after complimentary close