Email and letters

Hi All, can I just say how much I enjoy this forum, it's amazing how much help we get from you - When emailing or sending a letter in Spanish, how do you start? For instance, we start Dear ...... at the moment we just keep putting Hola and I'm sure that's not too good. And when finishing we put muchos gracias, again not quite right. So what's the best finish for formal, ie. Yours sincerely and Yours faithfully and less formal like Regards or Best regards? Also if someone Spanish gives their first and last name, is it correct to address them by their first name or should you use their title? Many thanks

Un Saludo (Translates as "A Greeting") is the most common way that I have seen emails signed off.

I have had emails that start with Hola or Buenos Dias/Buenas Tardes. I guess it depends on whether you actually know the person or how formal the communication is.

Noreen

Many Thanks Noreen for taking the trouble to answer my post - It's just nice to be able to do all the basics in Spanish even if you can't speak the language ( Although trying hard )

Opening greetings appear on the left-hand side of your letter.

In formal letters when the person you're writing to isn't a familiar one, you'd write:

• Muy Señor mío:
• Muy Señora mía:
  
• Muy Señores míos:

Some formal endings include the following:

• Sin otro particular, le saluda atentamente,
• Le saluda atentamente,
  

And some informal ones:

• Un cordial saludo,
• Cordialmente,

Hope this helps

Many thanks HiSpain - would be interesting to know what these translate to in English