A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other written communication, such as an email. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in a letter is Dear followed by the recipient's given name or title. For each style of salutation there is an accompanying style of complimentary close, known as valediction.
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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 normally not be a correct form. A comma follows the salutation, 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, the most often acceptable salutations are:
"Gentlemen", commonly used in the past, is today often thought inappropriate unless one is certain one is addressing a group that is entirely male.
In older British usage and current American usage, abbreviations "Mr.," "Mrs.," and "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 offices are sometimes addressed by their titles, e.g. "Dear Lord Mayor," although in American practice the office is commonly prefixed by "Mr." or "Madam," as in "Dear Mr. President," or "Dear Madam Secretary."
"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. "Mrs." is reserved for married women, and usually only those who have taken their husband's last name. In older conventions, "Miss" is always for unmarried women and "Mrs." is for married women. "Ms.," in such cases, is not used.
Messrs. or Messieurs is a term used 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.
Similarly, Mesdames is a term to address many women or a mixture of married and unmarried women. It is pronounced "medam".
On occasion, one may use "Sir" or "Madam" by itself as the salutation. 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.
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 gender 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 person's 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.
Note that in French, the abbreviation for Monsieur is M. – the English "Mr." is not used.
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. Note also that in Québécois usage, many titles will be rendered in the feminine, contrary to practice in France (i.e. Madame la Présidente, Madame la Professeure, Madame la Directrice.)
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 (feminine: Chère Consœur).
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), "dear", (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. 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. Dr. Lamotke, and Sehr geehrte Frau Professor Lamotke.
Further details in the German Wikipedia article de:Anrede
The standard Italian salutation uses the normal style of address to the recipient of the letter, followed by a comma:
If the recipient holds a specific title:
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.
In position of the English "Dear" are the words "Poojya," "Aadarneeya," or "Priya" (from most formal to most informal), for social writing (e.g., relatives/friends). They would not usually be used for business writing. The second may be used in some instances, for example if writing to a teacher.
Formal ways of salutation include "Sri," "Sriman," "Srimati," "Chiranjeev," "Chiranjeevi Saubhagyavathi" and "Kumari." Of these, "Shri" and "Shrimaan" are used to respectfully address married (or presumed married) men. "Shrimati" (Abbr: "Smt.") is used for married women.
Shri is most commonly used salutation in hindi for a married male, while for a married woman, Shrimati is used. For unmarried and young boys Kumar is used, whereas Kumari is the salutation used for unmarried and young girls.
Written salutation includes "Sreeman" for men and "Sreemathi" for women.
Various forms of salutation in Telugu are as follows: "Sri / Shri" ( శ్రీ ) is used to address men, "Srimathi / Shrimathi" ( శ్రీమతి ) is reserved for married woman. Unmarried girls are usually addressed as "Kumari" ( కుమారి ). In addressing a person in letter, usually in case of elders, "Poojyulaina" (పూజ్యులైన / పూజ్యనీయులైన) is often used although "Ganga Bhagirathi Samanulaina" ( గంగా భాఘీరతి సమానులైన )is used for female elders. When addressing a person who is younger, "Chiranjeevi" ( చిరంజీవి ) is commonly used irrespective of all genders. "Kumari" ( కుమారి ) is sometimes used for unmarried women and "Chiranjeevi Lakshmi Sowbhagyavathi ( చిరంజీవి లక్ష్మీ సౌభాగ్యవతి ) , Chi. La. Sow. ( ఛి. ల. సౌ. ) in short for married women
In addition, a suffix "garu" ( గారు ) is added as a respect or to address an elderly person irrespective of gender.
Example:
శ్రీ నరసింహ రాజు గారు, (Mr. Narasimharaju,)
పూజ్యనీయులైన నాన్నగారికి, (Respectful Father,)
కుమారి వందన, (Miss Vandana)
శ్రీమతి సుబ్బలక్ష్మి గారికి, (Mrs. Subbalakshmi)
గంగా భాఘీరతి సమానులైన శ్రీమతి సూర్య కుమారి గారికి, (Mrs. Suryakumari, )
చిరంజీవి గౌతం సాగర్, (Little Master Gowtham Sagar)
చిరంజీవి శ్రీజన్య, (Little Miss Sreejanya,)
చిరంజీవి లక్ష్మీ సౌభాగ్యవతి చందన కు, (Mrs. Chandana,)
ఛి. ల. సౌ. చందన కు, (Mrs. Chandana,)
Written salutation includes "Thiru" for men and "Thirumathi" for women.
In correspondence and during conversations, Russian speakers use the word "Уважаемый"/"Уважаемая" (according to gender) 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). It is possible to use "Молодой человек" or "Девушка" in less formal conversations.
In catalan, there are many types of salutations: