Shadowing Practice: Work emails: Office English episode 1 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Emails, should they be formal, friendly?
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Emails, should they be formal, friendly?
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It can be difficult to know.
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More formal than informal, although at times you might get a smiley face from me.
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If it's someone that I've never spoken to before, then it's more formal.
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But I'd still probably say hi rather than dear.
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You know, those technicalities of when to write kind regards and when to write best wishes.
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Today on Office English we're learning the best language for emails,
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whoever you're sending them to.
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Hello and welcome to a brand new business podcast series,
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Office English, from BBC Learning English.
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I'm Pippa.
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And I'm Phil.
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And in this series we will be guiding you through the trickier areas of business language
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and discussing some useful words and phrases for you to use in the office or wherever you work.
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Business language can be tricky,
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even for native speakers of English,
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and the workplace is changing all the time with new technology and more people working from home.
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So we're here to talk about some of the techniques and phrases that we use at work.
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At BBC Learning English, we're all fluent English speakers working in a British cultural context.
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So that's the situation we have the most advice for.
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But we'll try to point out where things might be a bit different in different workplaces around the world.
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This first episode is all about emails.
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We've already heard from BBC colleagues that not everyone agrees on how we should write emails.
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But what do you think, Phil?
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Should an email sound like a letter?
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Probably not.
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Everything with email depends on the situation,
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depends on who you're writing to and why,
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but I think an email is usually a lot less formal than a letter.
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Yes, I agree.
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I would say I'm quite informal in most of my emails,
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but as you say, it depends on who I'm emailing.
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So in this episode, we're going to look at how to address emails,
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some useful email phrases and how to sign off,
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depending on who you're sending the email to.
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OK, so first off, the email greeting.
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What phrases are we looking at here, Pippa?
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OK, so the first phrase we could use to start an email would be to say,
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Dear Phil, what do you think about that?
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I do use dear.
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Sometimes.
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It's not the one I use most.
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But I do use it,
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and I'll tell you when I use it.
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I use it when I'm writing an email to someone I've not written to before
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or someone who I'm a little bit scared of
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or maybe someone who's very important or they're just very serious
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or if someone wrote to me
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and they use dear I'd look at what they've said
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and sort of mirror it I'd do the same back
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so I do use dear but it's not the one I use most often because I think in in an email,
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it sounds a bit formal.
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Yes, I agree there's nothing wrong with saying dear Phil nobody would think
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that that was bad English I use it sometimes
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if I had to write an email on behalf of a company
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so you know a more formal email that's not from me
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but from the company that I represent
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and what I might use for a more personal email to a colleague or something is just to say hi or hello.
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Yeah, and actually this is the one that I use the most.
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I think 90% of my emails probably start with hi.
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Definitely with someone I know, I would use hi.
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If I'm not worried about who I'm writing to in any big way,
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then I would use hi.
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It's not formal, but in an email,
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it's not very informal either, I don't think.
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Yes, and certainly in the UK we're more and more informal at work.
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So emails sound more and more like text messages.
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Not completely, but saying hi or hello doesn't feel out of place.
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One thing that I like to say sometimes
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if I'm not sure whether to be formal or informal is to start my email with good morning or good afternoon.
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What do you think about that?
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I think that's a really nice way to do it
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because it can sound kind of friendly
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but it can also sound kind of formal you can sort of see it in two different ways.
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Yes, if you sort of said good morning to someone when you were speaking that would sound quite formal.
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It makes me think of being at school
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and you would say sort of good morning miss or good morning sir to the teacher.
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What about emails where you don't know the name of the person Phil,
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what would you do then?
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Well yes, we've got all these formula for using in letters like to whom it may concern
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or dear sir or madam but they often sound a bit cold
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and a bit unfriendly it does depend on the situation it
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will be different in different countries it might be different in different industries
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if you're a lawyer it might be different but i would probably use
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if
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if you use hi you don't actually need to say who
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you're writing to you can just say hi yeah that's really useful
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because when you say dear at the start of an email you need to put the name of the person
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You can't just say, dear, I'm writing about.
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That doesn't make sense in English.
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So yeah, hi is really useful.
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Again, good morning, good afternoon work as well because you don't need the name.
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You can also hide the fact that you don't know the name of the person.
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Sometimes people like you to know and have researched who you're messaging.
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Sometimes that's not possible.
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So just saying hi or hi there could work to be really friendly,
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but mask the fact that you don't know their name.
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Right, so we've started our email okay.
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Next, let's look at a couple of popular email phrases and when we might use them.
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OK, yes, so we've got this one here.
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I'm writing to enquire about.
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What do you think of that?
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Well, that's kind of a formal way to state what your email is about.
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It's something you might write in a letter.
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We don't tend to use it in emails as much.
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I might say, if if I was trying to be a bit friendlier.
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I'm wondering if you can help me with,
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instead of I'm writing to inquire about.
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Yes, no, definitely.
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It's something that sounds very normal in a letter but a bit strange in most emails I think.
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Okay, we've got another one here.
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Please find attached.
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Yes, this is one that you see a lot
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and we might use please find attached in an email to say
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that we're sending a file or a link and so that's what it means.
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A more informal way of saying this would just be to say,
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here is the document you asked for,
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here is the report, or here's the link to the podcast that you wanted to listen to.
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That would be probably a more friendly way to write an email to a colleague
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or someone at work that you know well rather than please find attached.
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But I think please find attached has a place in an email occasionally.
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Yeah, again, we were talking about formal ones,
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maybe if you're representing a company or writing to people that you don't know.
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A bit of a guide for emails can be that emails are a lot more like the way we speak to someone,
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whereas letters are often, formal letters are often a bit different to the way that you talk to someone.
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And finally, how should we say goodbye at the end of the email?
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What are the options Pippa?
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Okay so our first option would be to say something like you're sincerely or yours faithfully.
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What do you think of that Phil?
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Now this is the thing you always get taught to put at the end of a formal letter.
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I remember at school being taught this
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and I think it's probably still true for a formal letter but I think it's a bit unusual on an email,
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even quite a formal email I think it's unusual to see this.
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Yes, something
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that people might use instead even in quite a formal email is to say something like kind regards
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because it's quite formal but it still sounds polite.
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Yeah I actually often just use regards a lot at the end of my email
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and it's because it's in that sort of sweet spot of being a bit formal
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but a bit friendly
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and it means I don't have to think too much about what I'm putting at the end of an email
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because I'm never sure.
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I usually will say all the best or best wishes particularly
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if it's to somebody I don't know well
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or it's the first time I've emailed someone and
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because it's quite formal but it's good to switch up the options especially
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if you're emailing back
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and forth a lot with somebody you don't want to keep writing the same thing I just find
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that feels a bit strange to keep saying all the best especially
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when they reply quickly and then you reply and it's just like seems like it has no meaning by that point.
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Now this this might be a very English thing
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because we do this a lot and often look for opportunities to do it
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but if it makes sense to say thanks or many thanks at the end of the email I will often do that.
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Yes or you could say thank you in advance
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if you've asked for a favour in the email you can
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end by saying thanks in advance just to remind them that you are asking for something
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or
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if you're just sending a note round to remind someone of
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something thanks can be useful as well sort of thanks for reading.
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And I guess something similar is this phrase here looking forward to hearing from you
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and it's you're kind of suggesting that something is going to happen in the future,
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but it's not an impolite way of doing it.
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It's kind of a friendly way of saying you're expecting someone's reply and that you genuinely would like to hear from them.
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Yes, I love that.
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It's one of my favourites,
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actually, looking forward to hearing from you.
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And I will say that often when I've sent an email to somebody to ask for something,
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I've not emailed them before and I would like them to reply,
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but I'm not sure that they will reply.
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So saying looking forward to hearing from you is a really friendly way to kind of encourage them to reply.
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And it just kind of creates a strange expectation that they're going to come back to you on what you've asked for.
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So deciding how formal to be in an email is tricky.
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Let's listen again to what people at BBC Learning English had to say.
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If it's someone that I've never spoken to before,
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then it's more formal, but I'd still probably say hi rather than dear.
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More formal than informal, although at times you might get a smiley face from me.
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Smiley faces in emails.
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What do you think, Phil?
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If I'm not scared of the other person,
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I'll often use a smiley face because it's friendly and you can communicate a lot with them.
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But if it's a situation where you need to be a bit serious
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or you need to show a lot of respect to the other person,
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then it's probably not appropriate.
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Yes, definitely.
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I think smiley faces could be useful
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if lots of people in your office use them because sometimes when you just write something down,
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people don't quite understand the tone of what you're saying.
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So they don't know if you're being friendly or serious or you're really annoyed.
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So a smiley face can sometimes help with that.
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but I would not use it frequently with or at all with people I don't know,
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with people who are senior in a company.
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Usually it's kind of about what the other person does.
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So a good rule is when you're replying to somebody to try and match the way that they've written their email.
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So if they're sending lots of smiley faces,
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you're probably safe to send them back.
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But if they're being really formal,
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saying dear and kind regards,
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it's useful to kind of match that in your reply.
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Yes, so do look out for those things.
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Look at how other people start their emails.
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Look at whether they use smiley faces or not.
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Also think, does it sound like someone talking?
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If it does, it's probably quite informal and you're not going to have any problems doing the same thing back.
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Yeah, unless their email is really rude,
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then you might not want to be rude back to them.
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That's all we've got time for on this episode of Office English.
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Remember, you can find courses and activities to help with your English at work at bbclearningenglish.com.
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Next time we'll be talking about meetings and how to get your ideas heard at work.
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Bye for now, or should I say, all the best.
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Kind regards.
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Bye.
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Thank you.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice crafting effective work emails in English. The focus is on understanding the balance between formality and informality in your correspondence. You will learn how to greet your recipients appropriately, select suitable phrases, and sign off your emails based on your relationship with the recipient. By the end of this lesson, you will feel more confident in your ability to write professional emails that convey the right tone.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Dear [Name] - A formal greeting often used in initial communications.
- Kind regards - A common closing phrase that is polite but not overly formal.
- Best wishes - A friendly closing suitable for colleagues you know well.
- Email Etiquette - The customary code of polite behavior in email communication.
- Formal vs. Informal - The distinction between professional and casual language depending on the audience.
- Greeting - The opening of an email that sets the tone for the message.
Practice Tips
To effectively enhance your email writing skills, consider using the shadowing technique. This involves listening to the speaking parts of the video and repeating them aloud. Focus on mirroring the tone and speed of the speakers. You can use a shadowing app to help you practice: play a small segment and pause after key phrases, repeating them until you feel comfortable. This will help internalize the structure and vocabulary discussed in the video.
Practice emails at different levels of formality. Choose one segment where the speakers use a formal tone, like using "Dear" and "Kind regards," and another where they are more informal, using "Hi" and "Best wishes." Pay attention to their intonation and facial expressions; this will help you understand how tone can change perception in emails.
Finally, try writing a few practice emails to different types of recipients—formal to a manager, informal to a teammate—and use the appropriate phrases and closings. This exercise will help you hone your skills and gain confidence in your email communication abilities in a professional setting.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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