A German email broadcasts your competence in its first two lines. The salutation, the comma after it, the capitalisation of the next word, and the closing are tightly conventionalised — and Germans read deviations instantly, the way an English reader notices "Dear Sir, Thanks for you're email." This page gives you the formal and informal frames, the exact orthography rule that trips up nearly every English speaker, and the register graduations that let you pitch a message correctly. Get the frame right and the rest of the email is forgiven; get the frame wrong and even perfect prose reads as clumsy.
The salutation: who you're writing to
The opening line (Anrede) encodes the relationship. Pick by how well you know the recipient and how formal the context is.
| Salutation | Use when | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, | recipient unknown (no name) | formal |
| Sehr geehrte Frau Müller, | known name, formal | formal |
| Sehr geehrter Herr Dr. Schmidt, | known name + title, formal | formal |
| Liebe Frau Müller, / Lieber Herr Schmidt, | known, established, warmer business | semi-formal |
| Liebe Anna, / Lieber Tom, | friends, family, first-name basis | informal |
| Hallo Tom, / Hi Anna, | casual, colleagues you ‚du' | informal |
Note two details English speakers miss. First, titles matter: an academic Dr. is included (Sehr geehrter Herr Dr. Schmidt), and a Professor even more so. Second, gendered adjective endings apply: geehrte Frau, geehrter Herr, Liebe Frau, Lieber Herr — the ending agrees with the gender of the addressee.
Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Bergmann,
Dear Dr. Bergmann, (formal salutation with academic title; ‚geehrte' agrees with Frau)
Hallo Tom,
Hi Tom, (informal salutation to someone you're on first-name / du terms with)
The rule everyone gets wrong: comma, then lowercase
This is the single most noticeable formality marker, and it is the opposite of English. After the German salutation you put a comma, not a colon or nothing — and then the first word of the body is lowercase (unless it happens to be a noun, or the polite pronoun Sie). English capitalises the word after "Dear …"; German does not, because the salutation and the first sentence are treated as one continuous unit interrupted by a comma.
Sehr geehrte Frau Müller, vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.
Dear Ms Müller, thank you for your message. (comma after the salutation, then LOWERCASE ‚vielen' — the body continues the sentence)
Liebe Anna, ich wollte dir nur kurz schreiben.
Dear Anna, I just wanted to drop you a quick line. (lowercase ‚ich' after the comma)
The first body word is capitalised only when it is itself a capitalised word: a noun, the formal Sie / Ihr (always capitalised in correspondence), or a proper name.
Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt, Ihre Anfrage haben wir erhalten.
Dear Mr Schmidt, we have received your enquiry. (‚Ihre' is capitalised because the polite ‚Sie'-possessive always is — not because it starts the line)
The Betreff (subject line)
German business email expects a clear Betreff (subject line), often a noun phrase rather than a sentence, naming the matter directly: Betreff: Bewerbung als Projektmanager ("Subject: Application for Project Manager"), Rückfrage zu Ihrer Rechnung Nr. 4521 ("Query regarding your invoice no. 4521"). A vague or missing subject reads as careless in formal correspondence.
Betreff: Terminanfrage für ein Beratungsgespräch
Subject: Appointment request for a consultation (concise noun-phrase subject line — the German norm)
Keep Sie throughout a formal email
If you open with Sehr geehrte… and Sie, you stay with Sie / Ihnen / Ihr for the entire message — and in correspondence these polite forms are capitalised: Sie, Ihnen, Ihr, Ihre. Slipping into du mid-email, or dropping the capital, breaks the formal frame. (The old rule also capitalised Du/Dein in letters as a courtesy; today that is optional and increasingly dropped in informal mail, but the polite Sie is always capitalised.)
Könnten Sie mir bitte mitteilen, ob Ihnen der Termin passt?
Could you please let me know whether the appointment suits you? (formal Sie/Ihnen kept and capitalised throughout)
Closings: matching the open
The sign-off (Grußformel) must match the register of your salutation, and — unlike the salutation — it takes no comma before the signature.
| Closing | Register | Abbrev. |
|---|---|---|
| Mit freundlichen Grüßen | formal standard (default business) | MfG |
| Freundliche Grüße | slightly lighter formal | — |
| Mit besten Grüßen / Beste Grüße | neutral, professional-warm | — |
| Viele Grüße | neutral, friendly | VG |
| Liebe Grüße | warm, informal (friends, close colleagues) | LG |
| Bis bald / Mach's gut | casual, friends | — |
Mit freundlichen Grüßen is the safe, neutral business default — the German equivalent of "Best regards / Yours sincerely." MfG is its abbreviation, but spelling it out is more polite in a first or formal contact; reserve MfG for ongoing internal threads. Note the spelling Grüßen with ß, and that there is no comma after the closing line.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Yours sincerely / Best regards (formal default closing — note the ß in Grüßen, and no comma after)
Viele Grüße aus Berlin
Best wishes from Berlin (neutral-friendly closing; common in semi-formal mail)
Liebe Grüße
Warm regards / Love (informal closing to friends; abbreviated LG in chat)
SMS, chat, and abbreviations
In texting and chat, the same closings shrink to abbreviations: LG (liebe Grüße), VG (viele Grüße), VLG (viele liebe Grüße), MfG (mit freundlichen Grüßen). You'll also see lg lowercase in very casual messages. Common chat shortenings include hdl (hab dich lieb, "love you"), kp (kein Plan, "no idea"), and vllt (vielleicht). These belong only to private, informal channels — never in business email.
Bin gleich da, LG
Almost there, warm regards (texting register — LG = liebe Grüße)
A formal and an informal frame side by side
English contrast: English writes "Dear Ms Müller," then a capital ("Thank you…"), and signs off "Best regards," (often with a comma). German writes "Sehr geehrte Frau Müller," then lowercase ("vielen Dank…"), and signs off "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" with no comma. The two systems agree on the comma after the salutation but disagree on everything around it.
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, ich interessiere mich für die ausgeschriebene Stelle.
Dear Sir or Madam, I am interested in the advertised position. (formal frame — unknown recipient, lowercase body start, Sie implied)
Hallo Lena, danke fürs schnelle Antworten! Bis Freitag, viele Grüße
Hi Lena, thanks for the quick reply! See you Friday, best wishes (informal frame — lowercase body start, casual closing)
Common Mistakes
Capitalising the first body word after the salutation (the English habit).
❌ Sehr geehrte Frau Müller, Vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.
Incorrect — after the comma the body starts lowercase: ‚vielen Dank', not ‚Vielen Dank'.
✅ Sehr geehrte Frau Müller, vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.
Dear Ms Müller, thank you for your message. (lowercase ‚vielen' after the comma)
Using a colon or no punctuation after the salutation.
❌ Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt: ich schreibe Ihnen wegen …
Incorrect — German uses a comma after the salutation, not a colon (the colon is the English business style).
✅ Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt, ich schreibe Ihnen wegen …
Dear Mr Schmidt, I am writing to you regarding … (comma after the salutation)
Over-informal closing in a business email.
❌ [to a company you don't know] … Tschüss, Max
Off-register — ‚Tschüss' is a casual spoken goodbye; a formal mail needs ‚Mit freundlichen Grüßen'.
✅ … Mit freundlichen Grüßen Max Weber
… Best regards, Max Weber (register-appropriate formal closing — note: no comma after the German sign-off)
Slipping from Sie to du, or lowercasing the polite Sie, within a formal email.
❌ Können Sie mir helfen? … und schick mir bitte die datei.
Inconsistent — don't switch to ‚du' (‚schick') mid-formal-email, and the noun ‚Datei' must be capitalised.
✅ Können Sie mir helfen? … und schicken Sie mir bitte die Datei.
Can you help me? … and please send me the file. (Sie kept throughout; Datei capitalised)
Key Takeaways
- Match salutation to relationship: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren (unknown) → Sehr geehrte Frau Müller (formal) → Liebe Frau X (warmer) → Hallo Tom (casual).
- The core rule: salutation + comma
- lowercase first body word (unless it's a noun or the polite Sie/Ihr) — the reverse of English's capital.
- Keep Sie / Ihnen / Ihr (capitalised) throughout a formal mail; never drift to du.
- Match the closing to the open: Mit freundlichen Grüßen (formal, no comma after) down to Liebe Grüße / LG (informal); note the ß in Grüßen.
- Use a concise noun-phrase Betreff; reserve chat abbreviations (LG, VG, MfG) for informal channels.
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