Formal Letter and Email (B2)

Turkish business correspondence is a register with almost ceremonial fixtures: it opens with Sayın, makes its requests with rica ederim, leans on impersonal passives and the assertive future -(y)AcAktIr to sound institutional rather than personal, and signs off with one of a small set of formulae such as Saygılarımla or İyi çalışmalar. Get the grammar right and you still sound rude if you miss the etiquette; get the etiquette right with the wrong grammar and you sound like a tourist. Annotating one letter teaches both at once. The email below is an original composition written for this guide — a request from a job applicant to a company’s HR department — designed to showcase every load-bearing feature of the formal register. Read it whole, then line by line.

The email

The opener is fixed. Sayın (“esteemed, dear”, always capitalised as the first word of the salutation) precedes the full name, and Hanım (“Ms./Madam”, for a woman) or Bey (“Mr.”, for a man) follows the first name as a courtesy title. Note the ordering: with the title Bey/Hanım, Turkish attaches it to the given name (Ayşe Hanım, Ahmet Bey), never the surname — Yılmaz Hanım alone would be brusque. When you do not know the name, the impersonal Sayın Yetkili, (“To the relevant official,”) or İlgili Makama, (“To whom it may concern,”) is the standard. This sits at the heart of the deferential register; see register/formal-siz.

The body opens with the writer’s one first-person, witnessed action — inceledim (“I examined”, plain past -DI) — appropriately direct because it is the writer’s own deed. Everything around it, however, is formal. The genitive-possessive izafet şirketinizin web sitesi (“your company’s website”) uses the deferential 2nd-person-plural possessive -iniz (“your”, formal), the cornerstone of polite Turkish. The relative clause yayımlanan ilan (“the advertisement that was published”) uses the passive participle -(y)An on a passive stem (yayımla-n-), so no human publisher is named — institutional impersonality from the very first sentence.

Two more first-person statements, kept polite by register rather than by form: başvurmak istiyorum (“I want to apply”, with the dative-governing başvurmak, “to apply to” — note pozisyona, dative) and sunuyorum (“I submit/present”, a formal verb where colloquial Turkish would say gönderiyorum, “I’m sending”). The locative ekte (“in the attachment”) and the possessive accusative özgeçmişimi (“my CV”, object) round it out. Verb choice carries register here: sunmak (“to present”) is dressier than vermek or göndermek.

This is the assertive future -(y)AcAktIr — the signature tense of the bureaucratic register. Tamamlanacaktır = the passive stem tamamla-n- (“be completed”) + future -AcAk + the assertive copula -DIr, giving a tone of committed, official assurance: “will (assuredly) be completed”. The plain tamamlanacak would merely predict; the added -DIr turns it into an institutional undertaking. The agent phrase tarafımdan (“by me”, taraf + possessive + ablative) names the agent of the passive in the proper formal way — the same construction as tarafından (“by him/her/it”). The assertive -DIr is detailed at verbs/copula-dir.

The core polite request: rica ederim (“I request, I kindly ask”), the formal-register workhorse that replaces a blunt imperative. Note how much nominalization piles up before it. Başvurumun değerlendirilmesi = “the evaluation of my application” — başvuru (“application”) + possessive + genitive, governing the verbal noun değerlendiril-me-si (the passive stem değerlendiril- + the -mA verbal noun + possessive). The postposition konusunda (“regarding, on the subject of”) governs that whole nominal. The honorific possessive yardımlarınızı (“your assistance”, plural-deferential) is the object of rica ederim. Turkish requests bury the action in a noun and politely ask for it, rather than commanding it directly.

Now the formal if-construction and a polite ability form. Uygun gördüğünüz takdirde = “in the event that you deem it suitable” — the -DIK participle gördüğünüz (“that you see/deem”, 2nd-plural deferential) plus the formal conditional postposition takdirde (“in the case/event that”), a far dressier if than eğer … -sA. The verb geçebilirsiniz (“you may get in touch”, geç- + ability -Abil + aorist + 2nd-plural) softens to a permission/possibility: not “contact me” but “you are able to contact me”. The instrumental benimle (“with me”) and ablative numaradan (“via the number”) complete it.

A polished pre-closing. The matrix verb belirtmek isterim (“I would like to state”) is a hallmark of formal Turkish, where you announce your speech act before performing it. Its object is a nominalized clause: beklediğimi = the -DIK participle bekle-diğ-im (“my awaiting”, 1st-person) + accusative, “that I await”. The izafet olumlu dönüşünüz (“your favourable reply/feedback”) again uses the deferential possessive. This “I would like to state that …” framing is more courteous than a flat assertion.

A very high-formality line you will meet in official petitions. Gereğinin yapılması = “the doing of what is necessary” — gerek (“necessity”) nominalized and possessed, then the passive verbal noun yapıl-ma-sı (“its being done”), in the accusative yapılmasını. The verb arz ederim (“I respectfully submit/present”) is the bureaucratic superlative of rica ederim, used toward authorities. Saygılarımla (“with my respects”) is fused in as an adverbial here. This whole sentence is the formula of the Turkish official petition (dilekçe); the register is treated at register/bureaucratic.

The most common formal closer: Saygılarımla (literally “with my respects”, saygı + plural + 1st-possessive + instrumental -la). It is the safe, all-purpose sign-off. Alternatives by warmth: İyi çalışmalar (“good work”, friendly-professional, common between colleagues), İyi günler dilerim (“I wish you a good day”), and the very formal En derin saygılarımla (“with my deepest respects”). Choose by relationship; Saygılarımla never offends.

One more essential form, shown here as the kind of instruction a company sends back to applicants: the formal imperative -(y)InIz. Doldurunuz = doldur- (“fill”) + -(y)InIz, the deferential plural command — far politer than the bare doldur (“fill!”, singular) or even the plain plural doldurun. The -(y)InIz ending is the register’s polite directive, used on signs, forms and official instructions. Lütfen (“please”) and the adverb eksiksiz (“without any gap, completely”) reinforce the courtesy. For the polite-imperative system, see register/formal-siz.

The register’s four pillars

Why English speakers sound too informal

The trap is that English business email has grown casual — “Hi Ayşe, just wanted to apply…” — and a learner imports that warmth straight into Turkish, where it reads as a breach of register. Three habits give it away. First, using sen forms (senin şirketin, iletişime geçebilirsin) instead of the deferential siz plural. Second, issuing bare imperatives (doldur, gönder bana) where the formal -(y)InIz or a rica ederim request is expected. Third, writing direct active verbs (ben tamamlayacağım, “I will finish it”) where the register wants the impersonal passive with the assertive -DIr (tamamlanacaktır). None of these is grammatically wrong in isolation — they are simply the wrong register, and in Turkish formal correspondence register is not optional politeness, it is the message’s social contract.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• This email is an original composition written for this guide to model the Turkish formal register.
• Open with Sayın + given name + Bey/Hanım (or Sayın Yetkili, / İlgili Makama, when the name is unknown); the title attaches to the given name.
• The register runs on siz deference (şirketiniz, görüşünüz), impersonal passives (yayımlanan, değerlendirilmesi), the assertive future -(y)AcAktIr (tamamlanacaktır), and nominalized polite requests (rica ederim, arz ederim).
• Commands to the reader use the formal imperative -(y)InIz (doldurunuz), never the bare doldur.
• Close with Saygılarımla (safe and standard), İyi çalışmalar, or İyi günler dilerim, chosen by relationship.
• The cardinal English-speaker error is informal tone: sen forms, bare imperatives, and chatty openers/closers that breach the register.