This is the Business English Podcast Episode 309.
Me again, phrases for business email conversations.
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Hello, Lindsay. How's it going?
Excellent. Fantastic.
How are you, Aubrey?
I'm great. I have a question about emails.
We got a really good question about emails that made me start thinking, do you ever have email conversations?
Absolutely. I'm always confused about how to start that second, third, fourth reply.
The first one is easy because you're opening an email.
Maybe you're greeting them.
I hope you had a nice weekend, but if they're not necessarily a direct team member where we're pretty casual, we know how to respond.
If it's another podcaster that I have a relationship with but not super casual, it's hard to know what to say to open those emails.
Exactly. This is tricky for native English speakers and especially for language learners to know.
You can't be super formal if you've already exchanged a couple.
You're kind of getting semi -formal, but you don't want to be too informal.
This can be very tricky.
Oh, my gosh, this is a fantat.
We get the best questions from our listeners, and this is one of them.
This makes me think about our business English course.
I'll break because over there, we give our listeners the templates they need for this kind of granular skill, just really writing business emails.
Exactly, because there are so many different kinds of emails.
You might be scheduling a meeting or it might be informational.
You're trying to find something out and depending on why you're emailing, the phrase will be different, but also depending on who it is, what's the relationship, how formal you're going to be.
Totally. So go over to allersenglish .com slash business and check out that course.
I love that we've recently added lots of live speaking events and parties.
There's Fluency Party, there's Open Conversation Club, there's Q &A that you get to join depending on the plan you choose in all of our courses.
Yes, exactly. Open Conversation Club for every student in all of our courses.
Weekly speaking practice, that's so fun.
I'm there every week.
I love it. It's getting better and better too.
I'm just loving that we've added this because it really adds an element of connection.
Yeah, totally. So let's read today's question.
It was amazing. This is from Tomak who, spoiler alert, helped his country win the Olympics.
So let's go ahead and read that email here.
All right, here we go.
I've just participated in your amazing event, Allers English Olympic Games.
It was gorgeous and Poland won.
So fun to have that event.
We'll have more fun competitions open to the whole audience soon guys.
Here we go. I've been with your podcast for the last few months and I listened to it every morning while walking my dog Hunter.
Oh, I love that. I didn't share this dog's name.
Oh my gosh. I mostly listened to Business English episodes.
Many thanks for this.
It helps me at my work.
Wonderful. And I have a question for you.
Maybe you could make an episode about common phrases, sentences used in email conversations such as phrases for the beginning and the end of the email, both informal and formal would be great.
Thank you so much. And big greetings from Poland.
Connection, not perfection.
I love when our listeners quote our value here, right?
Our goal, our common goal.
That's what it is. Yes, I love this.
And this is such a great question because we have shared about emails in the past.
Great ways to start and end emails, phrases, for example, episode 1922 was avoid this mistake, how to not end business emails.
Be sure to check that one out.
But this is a little different when it's a conversation.
There have been several emails exchanged already makes it a little trickier, right?
Because we're not going to act the same way.
Like I said at the top, when as if we're just initiating a first email or very strange, actually, right?
That same, or even if it's different phrases, but it's still almost like greeting them for the first time would be strange.
And you don't have time for that.
No, no, no. Alright, so then what do we need to know to be able to do this really well, very skillfully?
Yeah, first, it really depends on who you're emailing, right, you are quite a bit more formal, even after a couple of emails exchanged.
If it's a client or a colleague, you don't know well, this is very different.
If it's informal team members, you know, well, you work closely with those are going to be such informal emails, or it's just like, thanks, gotcha.
But we'll share both today what this might look like in very informal meetings or emails and more formal emails.
Yeah. And honestly, I mean, most, most larger corporations are, are using slack for this, right?
So that is probably a different skill, which we'll get to, we'll create a course one day on slack, and how that's different from email.
But a lot of what we're probably going to learn is going to look more like slack messaging than emailing.
Exactly. Good point.
Because when you're going back and forth in a conversation like this, it starts feeling more like slack messaging, where you're just opening it.
It's a quick message, a quick response.
Yeah, yeah, if you're that or teams messaging or however, I think most larger companies don't email between colleagues internally, they save email for outside clients, that sort of thing.
And then the conversation happens somewhere else between employees.
So absolutely. Yeah.
And one thing that's interesting, I was just curious, because now when you search something online, often at the top, you're getting this AI search engine response.
Yeah, I was sort of curious.
I'm like, if Tomaek instead of emailing us had just searched this online, what would AI have returned?
And so I checked. Interesting.
And this is what it gave as we discussed per our chat based on what we talked about and in line with what we agreed.
I was like, Oh goodness, I would not use any of these if we've already exchanged a few emails and we're starting to feel more like we know each other.
These are so formal.
They're a little too formal.
They're a little too formal.
I like that you did that little thought experiment, Aubrey.
Good to check in with chat GPP or whatever it is in Google and see what's coming up and probably pulling from lots of textbooks, right?
These are all correct, but just so formal.
Yeah, right. We're not going to be able to get rid of the textbooks just because we have chat function.
We have AI now it's pulling from the textbooks.
So that's great. So then what I wanted to do is look as to get what we really use.
So I actually combed through my emails and all of our examples today are emails that I've exchanged with a lot of the ones for these more formal.
I was emailing back and forth with a zoom support person.
He was great, but it was interesting to look and see how they got less and less formal as we exchanged lots of emails.
Yeah. Even at the beginning, right?
Of course there's the initial more formal greeting and starting this conversation.
There was no point where I used any of these per our last email.
As someone that I've never met, I don't have the relationship.
It was always still semi -formal.
Yeah. A hundred percent.
So these examples coming up first are all for external communications, Aubrey, for someone outside of the team.
Exactly. So what I found when I'm looking at all these emails, every time you're acknowledging the previous email with a thanks or something and then continuing the conversation, sharing info or a question, but quite informally.
Yes. I love it. So you said, so here, can I start reading?
Let's do it. Let's show some of them.
Right? Yeah. So it's so first, you said, thank you for the information, Rick.
So now you've received something from Rick at zoom and, and you've said you, you're saying thank you for the information, Rick.
That's very helpful.
Can you let me know if X, Y, Z dot, dot, dot, continue, continue.
Exactly. And then the next email I said, I see, thank you.
So, well, I'm acknowledging that he has sent me information, he has answered questions.
I'm not going to immediately dive into, I have an other question, right?
I'm always acknowledging and thanking for the previous email in this conversation.
Love it. Interesting.
And then, and then you said me again, exclamation point.
Thank you so much for all your help with this.
Yeah. And was this to the same person?
It's the same person.
So we've exchanged back and forth.
He's given me, you know, information a few times.
So at this point, this is interesting.
When you are continuing that conversation, you have more questions.
It was interesting to see this.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm saying me again, like, sorry to bug you, but I do have another question.
It's a little playful, but it's also still maintaining the formality with thank you so much for your help with this.
There's still that formal, but you're building the relationship a little bit, which is nice.
Exactly. So I'm like me again, thank you so much for all of your help because I have another question, but I want to make sure he knows that I'm grateful for all of the help that he's already provided.
Excellent. Excellent.
And then what was the last one?
Last one was another quick question.
Will all meetings dot, dot, dot, dot.
So I, you know, in this one, this is like the fourth or fifth one, you know, I'm not every saying time saying, thank you, I see, thank you.
I appreciated this last one just quickly.
Okay. Another quick question, sort of a follow -up.
Yeah. And at that point you've built the, a bit of trust, a bit of connection, a nice exchange.
You don't have to say thank you again.
Thank you is the go to, to ensure you're being formal enough.
I think, yes, I think it's like the trick, you know, at this point you don't, you can let things down a little bit more.
You're at the end of your exchange.
You've got most of the help you need.
And that's where I think it's interesting to look at the progression from formal to semi -formal as you have this email conversation.
Even if it's someone I had, hadn't met this person, the first time we emailed those first interaction we had had, it was interesting to see how it started from formal and went to semi -formal.
And like you said, Lindsay, once you've exchanged a few emails, then we're saving time, we're getting a little more informal.
All right. I love it.
So now we're going to flip over to a more informal example.
I'm guessing this is within our team.
Maybe, or, yeah, these are emails you and I had exchanged.
Jessica and I, so these are all opening.
Those were the more formal openings.
Like you said, someone outside of the company and these are informal people on your team that you know very well.
I just looked at how I started email conversations where several emails had gone back and forth.
First one was just, gotcha.
Yes. And then hey again, right?
And then one that started with, sorry about that.
Because they're right.
You're continuing a conversation.
Someone had let you know something that was late or wrong or something.
And you'd start it with, sorry about that.
And then continue from there.
And then there's the me again, which is interesting because we're seeing that in the more formal external email and then this internal email, but it works exactly.
Right. The later emails that were external as we got a little more informal and then right here, first one here, I would say with a teammate and be like me again, if we've exchanged several emails, totally.
And this would probably be the same thing that you would see in Slack, right?
These in four, these internal emails, we can call it the same thing as Slack, some kind of internal teams messaging or something.
Right. But you do need something, right?
Often it would be strange if I just immediately asked a question or is it when, when we've gone back and forth, especially if I'm replying to an email and we have the whole history of the conversation there, it's sort of strange to not acknowledge that they had sent you something previously.
Yes. I think that's something that people miss sometimes is it's good to have some kind of, some kind of a reference point.
I'm going to ask a question about this.
We can go into this more another day and maybe build a course around this, but just asking the question, I mean, you wouldn't go up to someone and the first thing you would do in face to face is ask the question.
You'd say, how's it going?
You know, remember when we talked about this, I feel like digital communication should kind of mirror what you're going to do in real life.
Right. And the difference between an email conversation and in -person conversation is there is time between you're exchanging emails.
There's the history here, but it's still, you're not standing face to face, you know, talking, talking, talking.
So there is, there needs to be some kind of acknowledgement at the beginning each time.
It's kind of a container for what you're saying a little bit.
So we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come to the end of those emails.
Yes. Closing. Yes. Okay.
Aubrey, we're back for the closing.
Now let's get into the, coming back to maybe a conversation with Rick or just an external email, closing that.
Yes. And a couple of these I pulled from those email templates we mentioned in our business course, a couple of them were, yes, the emails that I was exchanging.
And then I wanted to look and see what we had in some of these templates.
So first, just let me know if you have any questions.
Yeah. I love this, but it is a little more formal.
It's implying, you know, a respect or relationship that's not as close to give this more full sentence.
For sure. For sure.
And then I find myself writing this a lot.
So definitely this is even to the team, right?
If we're introducing a new SOP, a standard operating procedure, it's a good thing from a management level as you communicate with your team to let them know that you're open.
If there are questions, it does feel a little formal, but I think there is a time for that, a time and a place.
And we could also shorten that.
If any questions, let me know.
Or just any questions, let me know.
Exactly. If we are talking to our teammates that we have that connection.
Yeah. This is where it feels a little more formal to have the full, let me know if you have any questions or maybe let me know your thoughts when you get a chance and you're going to close that with like, have a great weekend or have a great day.
Whereas like you said, the internal ones we might just shorten that, make it a little simpler.
Love it. Or give me a call if you need to.
Right. Right. So these are all a little more formal.
And even if you're having an exchange back and forth, it's more like a conversation.
You're still going to close.
It would still be strange to just ask a question and then your name, right?
Yeah. Some kind of closing.
Yeah. I might, I might say for that one, give me a call if you'd like to discuss further, if we're staying in the formal category.
Yeah. That would work as well.
Yeah. For the, I would probably put the, give me a call if you need to in the informal category personally, but it really depends on the context of the whole thing.
And that might be more as you're like, as the conversation goes on, right?
Maybe the one where I said me again, this might be something like we're getting a little more semi -formal as the conversation moves.
And then maybe I'd say, give me a call if you need to.
And this is what we teach here when it comes to business English, formal, informal, semi -formal.
We don't just stay in the formal state.
Right. We're always, always before the meeting, during the meeting, the end of meeting, we're moving in and out.
Exactly. This is how we do it.
Yeah. So let's talk about more informal.
These were emails between teammates, you know, our team.
And I was looking in the way we're ending emails when we have a conversation.
There's a lot of emails going back and forth often just thank you.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. We do a lot of that.
And I was thinking about that the other day.
It's really nice. It's nice because there's still, as we said before, the trick to being formal is adding thank you.
And it's true in these familiar Slack -ish exchanges.
We, even though we're a very small team, I think we're pretty strong team working together, we still have that formality of thank you at the end of an email, which is really nice.
And what's interesting is this really is short for thank you in advance, because if I'm looking at these conversations, it's always like you're giving information, you're asking questions, you're often asking them to do something for you or clarifying something.
So really what you mean is thank you in advance when you end that with thank you.
I'm asking you to do something, thank you.
And there are dangerous ways to use thank you in advance, but it's not the same thing.
It works in this case, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I love it.
Very interesting. And then also what do you think or let me know what you think.
I'm seeing that at a lot of the end of these, right?
We're sharing some information, an idea, and then we end it with just that.
What do you think? Yeah.
Or also I could add to that you might end with thoughts or your thoughts.
Oh yeah. Let me know your thoughts.
What are your thoughts?
What do you think? And then let me know thank you.
Okay. So combining the two.
Yes. Exactly. So lots of options and it is interesting because I looked through a few emails.
We do switch it up because it would sort of be strange if I just put thank you with an exclamation point on every email, it would start to feel maybe repetitive, maybe insincere, robotic, both to me writing that and to the person receiving it.
So we switch it up.
We have all of these different options to keep it interesting.
Yeah. Let's keep it interesting.
I love it. This is very cool that we had your real life examples today.
Thank you for bringing in these words, Aubrey.
Where should we leave our listeners?
I feel like they could take this episode and run with it.
I agree, right? Because many emails do become a conversation like this, right?
And the phrases you use depend on your goal and the relationship.
And I think it's interesting to highlight the difference between what the AI search engine returned and what was in my actual emails.
So like definitely follow here on the podcast, we're going to teach you real English, what you should really be putting into your emails.
Oh, I love it. Such a good topic today.
And guys hit the follow button and more importantly, check out the business course, right?
Go over to all there's English .com business and see how you could take this learning a step further.
Yes. And get those email templates.
They're amazing. I looked through them when I was getting ideas.
I'm like, these are so great because they're so different goals from the email you're sending.
It's so nice to have this email with all these great possible phrases.
Yeah. Yeah. You could print it out, have it on your desk as you are at work and emails come up quick.
You have to reply quickly and we don't have the time to open a textbook and have a lesson, but you could have a cheat sheet on your desk of how to reply.
Yeah. Good stuff. Love it.
All right, Aubrey, you have a good day.
I'll talk to you soon.
Awesome. See you next time.
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