Question

write an email to a friend in french

Answer 1

French people (or rather French business relations) will be more forgiving if you make mistakes in the core of the text, but for example writing “ma chérie” to a friend could send the wrong message. And choosing an unapropriate letter ending like “bisous” for a business partner would be a big faux-pas!

So let’s study some French letter vocabulary.

1- Starting Your French Letter
Before you even start writing your French letter, you need to select the correct title.

If you don’t know who you are writing to, start your letters by “Messieurs”.
If you are addressing your letter to “le Responsable des livraisons” but you still don’t know his/her name, start your letter with “Monsieur,” (even if you don’t know whether the person is a man or a woman).
If you know the name of the person, start your letter by “Monsieur X, or Madame X,”.
If it is someone you know, you met, or if you are answering to someone who wrote you first, then you can start with “Cher Monsieur X,” or “Chère Madame X,” if you feel like being a bit more friendly, not if you write to complain!
If it’s a friend, start with “Cher Pierre,” ” Chère Anne,” [adblock]
Never write (Cher) Monsieur Pierre, nor (Cher) Monsieur Pierre X.

Watch out with “chéri(e)” (do say the final “i”), we use it only with very close family and people you are in love with. Never with friends, although we did about 50 years ago. But is has changed.

write letter in French

2- How To End Your French Letter
A typical way to introduce the ending greeting for a business letter is “dans l’attente de vous lire, je vous….”