It's polite to write a "thank you" letter each time you receive a present. You can also write emails to thank people, but it's still considered more "personal" to write a short letter by hand.
Layout and format
"Thank you" letters can be quite short, and fill one or two sides of A5 paper (one side of A5 paper is half the size of a sheet of A4 or office paper). You can write your address in the top left hand corner of the paper, but you don't need to write the recipient's address. You can also write the date under your address.
You normally start the letter "Dear…" followed by the name of the person you are writing to.
In the first paragraph (which can be short), you should thank the person for the gift and say something complimentary about it:
"Thank you for the book tokens. I'm looking forward to choosing a book with them."
"Thank you for the wall calendar. It will be very useful to me this year!"
"Thank you very much for the beautiful soaps. I'm looking forward to relaxing in a hot bath!"
"Thank you very much for the lovely photo frame. It will look very nice on my chest of drawers."
"Thank you very much for the elegant scarf you sent me. It's exactly what I need for special occasions."
In the second paragraph, you can give general news about how you spent the holiday period (or how you spent your birthday if you have received a birthday present). You could also show interest in the other person's holiday.
"We had a very quiet and relaxing Christmas at home. The kids ate too many chocolates as usual, so now we're all on a diet! I hope your Christmas was as good, and that you were able to relax for a few days."
In the third paragraph you can talk about more general family or personal news.
In the final paragraph, you should thank the person again for their gift, and give your wishes for the New Year if applicable. (See below for useful phrases for ending the letter.)
Useful phrases
You should start your letter with "Dear" and follow it by the person's first name:
"Dear Tom" or "Dear Uncle Bill"
You can end your letter with any of these phrases:
"With love (from)", "With much love (from)", "Lots of love (from)" or "Love (from)" followed by your name on the next line. The "from" in these phrases is optional.
You normally end the letter with repeated thanks and wishes for the New Year:
"Thank you again for my present."
"Thank you again for such a thoughtful gift."
"Wishing you a happy New Year."
"With all my best wishes for a happy New Year."
"Wishing you all the best in 2006."
An example thank you letter
7, London Rd
Manchester
30 December, 2005
Dear Uncle Bill
Thank you very much for the French cookery book you gave me. The recipes look wonderful, and I'll certainly enjoy using it.
I hope you and Auntie Susan had a good Christmas. We stayed at home, but had a couple of day trips out nearby. Our local theatre put on a production of "A Christmas Carol", which was fun.
I go back to University next week, and this year I'm going to have to study hard for the final exams. I've really enjoyed the course so far, but I'm not sure what to do once I get my degree. The University arranges career interviews, but I don't really have a clear idea of what I want to do. Hopefully it will all become clearer during the course of the year.
Thank you again for the lovely present, and Happy New Year!
With much love
Anna
13 comments on “Writing "Thank You" letters and emails”
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We also have information on writing on our sister site:
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I want to highlight that it's nice to send a "Thank you" letter to the interviewer after the job interview, it will leave a good impression and will remind the interviewer about you.
Can you please provide some tips for writing good official emails?
Thanks,
Kumar
Have a look at our sister site:
http://www.theenglishweb.com
There's lots of information about using English at work and writing emails. There's also a business writing course and ebook with tips and examples for writing well.
Please help me in writing a mail for the following situation:-
I have completed a project with our team members. Our team lead sends an email congratulating me, saying "Great Job".
I want to reply him saying something like this "it was a good opportunity to work on such a good project", and saying "Would like to work with you in future also…".
Are there any additional good points that i can mention in the reply.
You can say:
Thank you for your email.
It was a good opportunity to work on such an interesting project, and I look forward to being able to work with you again in the future.
Best wishes
you use "i look forward to…" what is the meaning of this sentence when we add this to any other sentence
It just refers to a future action:
I look forward to hearing from you
I look forward to meeting you next week
I have been working in an american company while living in a foreign country. I leave here in about a month and would like to say thank you to everyone here. Some of them I know well but others I barely speak to. I'm not really sure what to say to them or what kind of gift I should leave for these strangers. Any suggestions on how to phrase a business goodbye/thank- you letter/gift would be appreciated. Thanks, kt.
I'm not sure I'd buy a gift for people I didn't know. On the other hand, you could definitely send an email around the company thanking people for the opportunity of working with them:
As you probably know, I'm leaving (name of company) on Friday, and I just wanted to thank you all for your help and support while I've been here. I've learned a lot about (name of country) while I've been here, and I've really enjoyed working with you. I hope we can keep in contact in the future.
With best wishes
(name)
I learned some from this lesson and even more from coments section.
Im working with a MNC company , we all employees have contributed some amount and done a social activity, So i need to send a Thanks mail to all employees for their wonderfull contribution and support. Kindly help me.
Thank you to everyone who contributed towards our (name the social activity). Your support is greatly appreciated.
Best wishes
(Your name)
If someone has done my work faster then I expected then what kind of thank you email I should send?
Thank you so much for finishing the work. I appreciate your hard work.
Best wishes
(your name)