Letter & Email Conventions

An English business email is loose about its frame: "Dear Ms. Lee," a body, "Best regards," a name — and you can bend every part. A Chinese letter is not loose. It runs on a fixed skeleton that a reader expects to see filled in slot by slot, and the most striking feature — the one with no English parallel — is the two-part closing: a blessing line that wishes the reader well, then a separate signoff word. Get the frame right and even a simple message reads as competent and respectful; skip a slot and it reads as unfinished. This page lays out the skeleton for both the traditional letter and its email descendant. The honorific vocabulary that fills the body lives under formal address; the formal-vs-casual dial is under choosing your register.

The skeleton

Every formal Chinese letter has the same five slots, in this order:

The address ends in a colon (：), not a comma — this is fixed, and the greeting 您好 then starts its own line. Note that Chinese punctuation uses the full-width colon here; the whole line is a self-contained unit.

Slot 1: the opening address

The address word sets the register for everything after it. Two families:

• 尊敬的 (zūnjìng de, "respected")
  • title — the default formal opener. Pair it with a title, not a bare given name: 尊敬的王总 ("Respected [CEO] Wang"), 尊敬的各位来宾 ("Respected guests"), 尊敬的招聘经理 ("Dear Hiring Manager"). This is the correct opener for any business email, cover letter, or letter to someone senior.
• 亲爱的 (qīn'ài de, "dear/beloved") — genuinely intimate. It's for family, close friends, and romantic letters. Using it in a business context is a classic transfer error, because English "Dear" is neutral while Chinese 亲爱的 is warm.

Slot 4: the two-part closing

This is the piece with no English equivalent, and the piece learners most often drop. A formal Chinese letter closes with two moves: a 祝-blessing wishing the reader well, then a signoff word. In the most traditional layout, the pair is 此致 / 敬礼, and it is split across two lines in a specific way:

• 此致 (cǐzhì) — literally "here I convey [my respects]" — is written at the end of the body, or on its own line indented two spaces.
• 敬礼 (jìnglǐ) — "[my] respectful salute" — begins a new line, flush to the left margin (traditionally raised, i.e. top-aligned). The two words together simply mean "with respect / sincerely."

Alternatively, and increasingly in email, you use a 祝 ("wishing you…") blessing matched to the relationship:

Slot 5: signature and date

After the closing comes the signature, and formal letters append a humility marker to it: 敬上 (jìngshàng, "respectfully submitted") or 谨启 (jǐnqǐ, "respectfully written") after your name — 张伟 敬上. The date goes on its own line below, in the Chinese big-to-small order: 年 → 月 → 日. In personal letters the humility marker is dropped.

Email versus the traditional letter

Email keeps the skeleton but relaxes it. The differences worth knowing:

• Subject line (主题). Traditional letters have none; email needs a clear, informative one — 关于下周会议的安排 ("Re: arrangements for next week's meeting"). Vague subjects read as unprofessional.
• The closing shrinks. 此致敬礼 still appears in formal email, but 顺祝商祺, 祝好, or 祝工作顺利 are more common — the two-line 此致 / 敬礼 layout is mostly reserved for printed letters.
• Openers stay. 尊敬的X：您好！ survives intact at the top of a business email; dropping straight into the request with no address reads as curt.

Common Mistakes

1. Translating "Dear" as 亲爱的 in a business letter. 亲爱的 is intimate; use 尊敬的 or a title.

2. Ending with a bare name and no blessing line. A formal letter without a 祝-blessing or 此致敬礼 feels cut off.

3. Putting a comma after the opening address. Chinese uses a full-width colon (：), and the greeting starts a new line.

4. Writing the date in English (small-to-big) order. Chinese dates run 年-月-日.

Key Takeaways

• A Chinese letter fills a fixed five-slot frame: address (尊敬的X：) → greeting (您好！) → body → closing → signature + date.
• The address takes a colon, and 尊敬的 (respected) is the business default; 亲爱的 (dear) is intimate — a false friend for English "Dear."
• The closing is two-part: a 祝-blessing or the split 此致 / 敬礼, then a signoff. Formal signatures add 敬上 / 谨启; dates run 年-月-日.
• Email keeps the openers but relaxes the closing (顺祝商祺, 祝好) and adds a clear subject line.
• Frame requests indirectly (麻烦您…, 不知您是否方便…) — the bare imperative reads as brusque in formal Chinese.