Get 18 Ways to End an English Email Like a Boss



Lindsay: This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 42: Meeting Monday, “How to End an Email like a Boss.”

[Instrumental]

Gabby: Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation. Now here are your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel,’ coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Lindsay: In today’s episode, you’ll learn how to stop ruining your email correspondences and you’ll get 18 awesome ways to end an email in English.

[Instrumental]

Lindsay: Hey Gabby. How’s it going?

Gabby: Good. Hey Lindsay.

Lindsay: How you feeling today? Everything cool?

Gabby: Great. Everything’s super cool.

Good. I’m happy to be recording again here. And today we’re gonna (going to) talk about how to end an email.

Gabby: Yeah. I’m really excited for this topic ‘cause (because) I know (um) at least one –if not a few a few students have requested this topic.

Lindsay: Yeah. We got a question from one of our students here about how to actually end an email and how the endings that you choose sound and what kind of feeling you convey through those endings.

Gabby: Yeah.

Lindsay: So let’s get into it.

Gabby: All right. So we’re gonna (going to) go through different endings by categories and we’re gonna (going to) share endings that we personally use and give you some different ideas of, (you know), how they sound to other people. So let’s start off, (um), with business endings.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: So more formal.

Lindsay: So (mm-hm). So you’re in the office and you’re writing an email to your boss or maybe to a colleague or something, a client even, what would you – what’s one idea, Gabby?

Gabby: “Best regards” That’s one of my favorites.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby: And, oh yeah, you can shorten it. You could say just “Best” or you could just say “Regards” Lindsay: Absolutely. Those are great ones. You can also say “Warm regards” if you wanna (want to) soften it up a little bit and make it a little bit more friendly.

Gabby: Yeah. (Um) you could just say “Respectfully” (Um) that’s another way to end a business email.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Gabby:I think those are the most common ones that I would use. And like I said, I often, I often go with “Best regards”.

Lindsay: Definitely. Along those lines, something similar, but if we’re in an academic setting and we’re writing to a professor or maybe, maybe a classmate, something like that, what could we say?

Gabby:

Well, any of the business endings would be great. You could also say “Thank you,” or “Thanks so much”. (Um) some things not to do if you’re emailing your professor, (um) don’t use abbreviations like (um) (like) ‘CU’ (like) the letter ‘C’ and the letter ‘U’. That’s really informal. It’s really just for text, (uh), texting your friends.

Lindsay:

Right.

Gabby:

It’s not (like) for emailing your professors. So keep it formal and when in doubt, just say “Thank you” Lindsay:

And also don’t forget to include your name.

Gabby:

Yeah.

Lindsay:

Obviously.

Gabby:

Happens a lot. So – yeah remember your professors work with a lot of students, so they, they need to know your name.

Lindsay:

And let’s get down to the casual stuff, emailing with your friends, someone you’re close to, family… Gabby:

(Mm-hm). Yeah. (Um) what could you say? We could say “Take care”.

Lindsay:

(Mm-hm). “Take care” is really good. It shows that you care about the person.

Gabby:

Yeah.

Lindsay:

“All the Best” is kind of a general (uh) ending.

Gabby:

(Uh-huh) (um) with a closer friend, like your best friend, you could say Lindsay:

“Hugs”. You could say “Love” or “XO”. So just the letter ‘x’ and the letter ‘o’. So ‘X’ means kiss, ‘O’ means hug.

Yeah. That’s common with people you’re really close with. You could also say if it’s just a friend, you could say “Talk soon”. “Speak soon”.

Gabby:

(Um) “See you later” or just “Later”.

Lindsay:

Or “See ya (you) later”.

Gabby:

“See ya”

Lindsay:

“See ya’ later.”

Gabby:

Yeah, yeah.

Lindsay:

(Um) “Cheers”.

Gabby:

Yeah, some people say “Cheers,” or “Ciao.”

Lindsay:

“Ciao”.

Gabby:

It has kind of an international flavor to it.

Lindsay:

If you’re kind of a cosmopolitan type I guess.

Gabby:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay:

Okay.

Gabby:

So I would say, (you know), when in doubt, try to go for the more formal ending. (Um), it just, it sounds better. It’s (um), it’s, it’s always okay to say “Thank you.” (Um) but we do have variations depending on, (you know), where you are in the US, like different regions. Also what kind of image you want to put out there about yourself. So if you want to be seen or perceived as a warmer person, you might use an ending like “Warm regards” or “All the Best” in a business situation. If you want to be more formal and (um) (you know) more reserved, you could just use an ending like “Regards.” Lindsay:

Definitely. So it all depends on the image you want to project. Your own kind of – I guess we could even say (like) your personal brand, right?

Gabby:

Yeah.

Lindsay:

Who you are. And the one last thing that we really want to remind you guys, please don’t end an email with “Bye” or “Good-bye”. Why?

Gabby:

It’s very final. That means -- really you don’t want to talk to me again.

Lindsay:

Or it’s really just spoken. Right.

Gabby:

Right. Right.

Lindsay:

It’s spoken.

Gabby:

On the telephone, right? If I end a conversation, I hang up the phone, I can say “Bye” or “Good-bye”, but not for an email.

Lindsay:

Absolutely. So keep in mind these tips guys. And (uh) this is just how to end an email. Other episodes, we’re gonna (going to) talk about how to begin an email, how to build an email, subject lines, all kinds of good stuff that we’re gonna (going to) get into right?

Gabby:

Awesome. Yes.

Lindsay:

All right guys. Good luck with your emails.

Gabby:

Thanks ya’ll (you all).

[Instrumental]

Gabby:

Hey guys. I wanted to let you know that one of my video lectures is all about how to end an email. It’s part of the “ESL Troubleshooting” course that I have.

Lindsay:

Awesome. It sounds really cool. So what kind of students could benefit from this, these video courses that you made?

Gabby:

Intermediate level English Speakers, (um), from all different areas like professionals, (uh) university students, just if you’re working on your conversational ability too, there’s (there are) 65 video lectures in this full course. It’s a, it’s a full video course and there’s (there are) quizzes and other materials included in it and different topics from how to write an email to improving your pronunciation and different phrases for conversation. So the point of the course is really to fill in those gaps where you guys have a lot of challenges. So it’s really worthwhile. There’s probably gonna (going to) be something that you’ve had a challenge with and that you could improve in this course. If you’re interested, check it out at my website GoNaturalEnglish.com.

Lindsay:

Yeah. I’m glad you made that ‘cause (because) email writing is a big problem for students and, (you know), specifically that issue is one of the gaps.

Gabby:

Yeah, yeah. And, and in the course you’ll learn how to start, how to end an email, (uh) and a lot of other topics. So come on and check it out.

Lindsay:

Awesome.

[Instrumental]

Lindsay:

Okay. So we want to encourage you guys to sign up for our email list and if you do sign up for the email list, you’ll have a chance to get our e-book, “Ten Ways to Use a Podcast to Learn English.”

Gabby:

You get that immediately, instantly, for free as soon as you sign up.

Lindsay:

Yep and also there’s something really exciting coming up. People who are on the email list are gonna (going to) be able to get exclusive content. (Um), we’re not gonna (going to) say anything about it right now because it’s coming later, but get on that email list. You don’t want to miss it.

Gabby:

Yeah, it’s the only way that we’ll be able to send you exclusive content coming out that’s related to the podcast.

Lindsay:

Yeah. So we’re excited to have you guys as a part of our email community. So come on over to www.allearsenglish.com and we will see you there.

Thanks for listening to the All Ears English Podcast. We’re here to help you learn English and you can help us by leaving a five star review on iTunes.