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How to translate emails: writing business emails in another language

Asking for a quote, confirming an order, moving a meeting: much of the work with customers and suppliers abroad still runs on email. Unlike chat, email is kept, forwarded and reread later, so when you write it in another language the format matters as much as the translation.

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Subject line: short, and translated on its own

The subject line is what gets read first and what gets searched for later. Keep it short and specific: “Quote: 500 labels, delivery 5 November”.

Subject and body are separate fields in an email app, so translate them one at a time. When replying, leave the “Re:” at the start of the subject alone; it keeps the thread together.

Greeting and sign-off

In most languages a business email opens and closes with set phrases. In English, “Dear Ms. Keller,” and “Kind regards,” are always safe; in German the formal address matters more, and in French the polite closing formulas do.

If the other person writes to you by first name you can do the same; in a first email, surname and title are the better choice. Put your name, company and phone number under the sign-off.

Write a body that translates well

Machine translation works best with short, clear sentences. Long paragraphs drift in translation and get skimmed on the other side.

A few rules that help:

  • One topic per paragraph: one for price, one for delivery, one for payment.
  • Number your questions; the answers tend to come back numbered too.
  • Skip idioms; write “we will do this” instead of “we've got it covered”.
  • Avoid abbreviations: write “pieces”, not “pcs”.

Dates, prices and attachments

Write dates with the month name: “5 November” translates to the right month, while “05.11” is read as 11 May in some countries. Give prices with the currency and say whether tax is included.

If you attach something, name it in the body: “The quote is attached (PDF).” Keeping accented letters out of file names stops them looking broken on the other side.

Reading incoming email

Copying a long email into a translator is enough to understand it, but check the critical parts against the original: dates, quantities, prices and sentences with a “not” in them. That is where translation errors start to matter.

If a sentence reads oddly, ask instead of guessing: “I understood the delivery date as 12 November, is that right?” It also leaves a written record in the thread.

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