A salutation is a greeting, in particular a formal greeting used in a letter. Salutations usually take the form "Dear [recipient's given name]". For each style of salutation there is an accompanying style of complimentary close.
Contents |
The salutation of "Dear" takes precedence in both British and American English, usually in both formal and informal correspondence, for example "Dear Mr. Smith" or "Dear John". Whereas a comma follows the salutation in British English, a colon is used in formal correspondence in American English. In the US, a comma is considered appropriate for informal correspondence only.
If the name of the intended recipient is unknown, "Dear Sir/Madam", "Dear Madam/Sir", "Dear Sir or Madam", "Dear Madam or Sir", "To Whom It May Concern", or "Dear Sirs" are often used, though the last is archaic. In the US, "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Ms." and "Dr." are typically followed by a period, whereas the period is omitted in British correspondence, since the contractions end with the same letter as the full word. Professional titles such as "Professor" or "Doctor" are often preferred over social titles. Dignitaries are addressed by their titles, e.g. "Dear Lord Mayor". Judges are often addressed as "Honorable".
"Miss" is generally reserved for unmarried women. "Ms." is for cases in which the marital status is either unknown to the writer or is irrelevant. For example, if you are writing a business letter to submit a bid to a female purchasing agent, "Ms." is entirely appropriate. However, if you are sending out a dinner invitation, "Ms." is probably inappropriate, unless you happen to know that is the recipient's preferred method of address. "Mrs." is reserved for married women, and usually only those who have taken their husbands last name. In older conventions, "Miss" is always for unmarried women and "Mrs." is for married women. "Ms.", in such cases, is not used.
The standard French salutation uses the normal style of address to the recipient of the letter, followed by a comma:
When writing to a woman without knowing whether she is married or not, the writer should use Madame, unless the woman is very young (less than 16 or 18). When writing to an elderly single woman, it is also preferable to use Madame, unless one knows that the person insists on being called Mademoiselle.
According to a traditional custom which still followed by some people nowadays, when writing to a female artist (actress, singer, etc.), one should use Mademoiselle, regardless of the marital status and age of the person.
When not knowing the sex of the person to whom one is writing, the appropriate salutation is
In the case where the writer knows well the recipient and is in friendly term with them, it is possible to add Cher/Chère in front of the address:
An address using Chère/Cher and a title (Madame/Monsieur/Docteur) should normally not be followed by a persons name; the address Cher Monsieur Dupuis is thus usually considered incorrect.
In case the writer and the recipients are close friends or intimates, it is possible to use the given name of the recipient immediately after Cher/Chère.
In case they are family related, they may used their family link preceded by Cher/Chère. This is almost compulsory if the writer is a younger member of the family (child to parent, nephew to uncle/aunt, grandchild to grandparent, godchild to godparent) and left to the discretion of the writer in other cases.
If the recipient holds a specific title, it must be inserted after the Monsieur/Madame:
In this case, one should always use Madame, and never Mademoiselle.
In some cases, the wife of a dignitary may be entitled to a special address:
If the recipient is a doctor, it is possible to use Docteur, or, more formally, Monsieur/Madame le Docteur, or, more casually, Cher Docteur, as salutation. This is often done for doctors of medicine. For other doctors, it is not common, even if the use is increasing, following the Anglo-Saxon custom. Basically one has to be consistent with the address: a letter sent to "Dr N. N." will use a salutation formula including Docteur, whereas a letter sent to "M./Mme N. N." will not.
If the recipient is a lawyer, notar (or various other legal positions), the proper salutation will be Maître ("Master"). The same salutation is used for famous writers, painters, and for members of the Académie française.
For some specific professions (lawyers, physicians, for instance), two persons exercising the same such profession will always use Cher Confrère".
The address may vary when writing to dignitaries. For instance, one will use:
German has two types of general salutations that are mutually distinguishable from one another - a formal and an informal form.
The formal form usually begins with Sehr geehrte(r) (lit. very honored) and the formal social title (and, if necessary, professional title) of the recipient together with surname is always used (e.g. Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt, Sehr geehrte Frau Meier). Sehr geehrte(r) is never used with forenames alone, although, rare as it is, it is possible to include the full name (e.g. Sehr geehrter Herr Johann Schmidt). With an unknown recipient, Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren is used with no variation on this.
Informal salutations in German tend to begin with Liebe(r) (e.g. Lieber Paul, Liebe Annette)
Specific salutations appear in German very similar to the way they do in English, with the exception that in the address block of a letter German must include all or multiple salutations that can be abbreviated Herr Dr. Schmidt, or Herr Prof. Prof. Dr. Lamotke. While in the opening of a letter the direct salutation is reduced to only the most important title and not abbreviated Sehr geehrter Herr Doktor Schmidt, or Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Lamotke. The same applies to female variants Frau Prof. Prof. Dr. Lamotke, and Sehr geehrte Frau Professor Lamotke.
Further details in the German Wikipedia article de:Anrede
In Turkish there are two ways of salutations, formal and informal. Like most other languages, i.e. as in English, gender doesn't play a role in the salutation. When you want to address somebody in a letter etc. in a formal way like "Dear Name" you can say "Sayın Name". In this formal way you don't need to specify her/his gender. If you want to say "Dear Mr./Mrs. Name" you just have to say "Sayın Name". But if you know the title of who you concern with, it is better to specify it without name like "Sayın Doktor".
In formal salutation if you don't know the name who you concerning with, you would say "Sayın Yetkili" is something like "Dear Sir/Madam", does not have a gender pointing.
In informal way you would say "Sevgili Name", it has almost the same meaning with "Dear Name" but it just can be used for a person who is close to you.
Formal ways of salutation include "Sri", "Sriman", "Srimati", "Chiranjeevi", "Chiranjeevi Saubhagyavathi" and "Kumari". "Sri" and "Sriman" are used to respectfully address men where as "Srimati" (Abbr: "Smt.") is used for married women. "Chiranjeevi" is used to address youngsters - boys (Abbr: "Chi.") "Chiranjeevi Saubhagyavathi" is used to address young married females. "Kumari" (Abbr: "Ku") is used to address unmarried young women.
There are other ancient systems (not in use any more) of salutations including references to Hindu Goddess Lakshmi when respectfully addressing married women and references to Ganga when addressing widows.
In correspondence and during conversations, Russian speakers use the word "Уважаемый" as a salutation, followed by the given name and patronymic. Salutations to unknown parties usually include an honorific like "Гражданин", "Господин" or "Товарищ" ("Гражданка", "Госпожа", or "Товарищ" being the feminine counterparts).
   | Forms of Address & Salutations to Federal & State Officials - Forms of Address and Salutations to Federal and State Officials |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Search
