Writing: Formal Letters & Emails
Writing: Formal Letters & Emails
A formal Dutch letter has a fixed architecture and a vocabulary that appears almost nowhere else: Geachte heer, hierbij, naar aanleiding van, bij voorbaat dank. Using informal phrasing in this frame is more jarring in Dutch than in English.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Geachte opens, Met vriendelijke groet closes
Geachte heer De Vries, / Geachte mevrouw, / Geachte heer/mevrouw,
Dear Mr De Vries, / Dear Madam, / Dear Sir or Madam,
Geachte ('esteemed') is the formal opening, followed by heer or mevrouw and the surname — never the first name. If you do not know the recipient, Geachte heer/mevrouw is standard. The closing is Met vriendelijke groet for normal business correspondence and the more distant Hoogachtend for official or legal contexts. Beste and Groetjes belong to informal writing only.
u throughout, including the possessive uw
Naar aanleiding van uw brief wil ik u het volgende meedelen.
In response to your letter, I would like to inform you of the following.
Formal register means u for 'you' and uw for 'your' in every position, with no drift into je. Note the verb form: u takes the third-person singular ending (u heeft or u hebt, u kunt, u wilt). Mixing u with je pronouns halfway through a letter reads as careless in a way English does not quite reproduce, since English has no such distinction to break.
Fixed formulas do the structural work
Hierbij stuur ik u ... / Naar aanleiding van ... / Bij voorbaat dank.
Please find enclosed ... / With reference to ... / Thank you in advance.
Formal Dutch leans heavily on set phrases: hierbij ('herewith') introduces an enclosure, naar aanleiding van ('further to') opens a response, in afwachting van uw reactie ('awaiting your reply') closes one, and bij voorbaat dank thanks in advance. These are frozen and cannot be paraphrased freely — improvising here is what makes a letter sound translated rather than written.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- Dear Sir or Madam
- English
- Yours faithfully
- English
- herewith / enclosed
- English
- with reference to
- English
- to inform
- English
- to request
- English
- Thank you in advance
- English
- awaiting
- English
- the enclosure
- English
- your (formal)
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