Salutation - English

English

The salutation "Dear" in combination with a name or a title is by far the most commonly used salutation in both British and American English, in both formal and informal correspondence. It is commonly followed by either by an honorific and a surname, such as "Dear Mr. Smith," or by a given name, such as "Dear John," However, it is not common in English to use both a title of address and a person's given name: "Dear Mr. John Smith" would not be correct form.

A comma follows the salutation and name, while a colon is used in place of a comma only in American business correspondence. This rule applies regardless of the level of formality of the correspondence.

If the name of the intended recipient is unknown, acceptable salutations are:

Dear Sir/Madam or Dear Sirs (If the gender of the reader is unknown).

To Whom It May Concern (If the writer wishes to exclude the gender of the reader from the salutation and/or to convey that the reader should forward the copy to one more suited to receive or respond appropriately).

Dear Sir (If the reader is Male).

Dear Madam (If the reader is Female).

In older British usage and current American usage, abbreviations "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Dr." are typically followed by a period (full stop), as is "Ms." even though it is not really an abbreviation, but it is common in recent British usage to drop the period after all such titles. Professional titles such as "Professor" or "Doctor" are frequently used both in business and in social correspondence. Dignitaries and holders of certain public office like "Mr. President," or "Dear Madam Secretary."

"Ms." is applied in cases in which the marital status is irrelevant and/or unknown to the author. For example, if one is writing a business letter to a woman, "Ms." is entirely appropriate. "Mrs." is applied to specifically known married women, though not always in the case where a wife keeps her surname given at birth. "Miss" can apply to specifically unmarried women, however the term is being replaced more and more by 'Ms'.

"Miss" is the proper form of address for female children. "Master" is used in formal situations for addressing boys typically aged under 16, after which it is "Mr". "Master" in this case is of old English origin.

Messrs. or Messieurs is a historically used term to address many men rather than "Mr Pink, Mr White, et al." Messrs is the abbreviation (pronounced "messers") for messieurs and is used in English. Mesdames addresses many women. Pronounced 'Meydammes'.

On occasion, one may use "Sir" and/or "Madam" by itself as the salutation, with nothing preceding. The severe and old-fashioned formality of such a salutation makes it appropriate for very formal correspondence (for example, addressing a head of state, or a letter to the editor), but in the same way the formality and stiffness of such a salutation would make its use in friendly social correspondence inappropriate.