How to write emails in Spanish

Writing emails is always slightly tricky, particularly in a foreign language, as there are many unwritten rules and subtle distinctions about word choice and formality. In this section we’ll look at a host of different email templates and situations so you’re completely prepared to write any type of email you may need.

First, how do you actually say ‘email’ in Spanish? The full term is correo electrónico (electronic mail) but most people just say correo. Email (pronounced with the stress on mail, not e) is fine too with correo and email being interchangeable. E-mail with a hyphen is much less common, as it is increasingly in English. Unlike English, there’s no verb ‘to email’, so instead of saying ‘Email it to me tomorrow’ it has to be ‘Send it to me by email tomorrow’. For this, you can use mandar or enviar: Mándamelo por correo mañana or Envíamelo por email mañana. In American English it’s quite normal to say ‘Write me’ instead of ‘Write to me’ but in Spanish it must always be indirect. Escríbela un correo (Write her an email) is wrong – instead, Escríbele un correo (Write an email to her). When someone asks you for your email, remember to dictate it in a Spanish way. This is where learning the letters of the alphabet comes in handy – Gmail for example is pronounced heh-mail. For @gmail.com you’d say arroba heh-mail punto com.

Essential Email Vocab

If you’re wondering why Bcc is Cco, it’s because blind carbon copy is translated as copia de carbón oculta. Now we’re ready to start writing emails. For informal ones to family or friends, the easiest way to start is with a simple hola, buenas or querido. You can omit opening question and exclamation marks if you wish, relax your punctuation, use colloquial language, and use tú and not usted. Then sign off with besos or abrazos. Unlike in English where wishing hugs and kisses might seem a bit much it’s completely normal in Spanish. You can play around too with augmentatives (besotes, abrazotes, besazos) and diminutives (besitos, besillos). Equally you can say un beso, un abrazo, un besote, etc. Before abrazo, it’s quite common to add fuerte (literally, strong) – un fuerte abrazo. If you’re male and writing to a male friend it’s more usual to use abrazos rather than besos although plenty of guys send besos too. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Email to family member

Email to friend

What about at work? Here, unless it’s to a colleague you work closely with, it’s more appropriate to start with Buenos días or Buenas tardes instead of just Buenas, and sign off with Saludos or Un saludo. For important emails, care should be taken with punctuation. In Spain, for emails sent within the company, use tú and vosotros instead of usted and ustedes. If you sent an email to a few colleagues addressing them as ustedes it would sound very stiff and distant. This differs from similar languages like French where vous is much more commonplace. In Latin America on the other hand, you’d always use ustedes and, in many countries, you’d favour usted over tú.

For clients and customers it depends on the business and the nature of the email. A company reaching out to bloggers on Instagram or promoting their new smartphone app would seem out of touch if it used usted. Conversely, if it were contacting a potential investor, at least on initial contact, it would be rude and unprofessional to use tú. In the end you have to judge based on the situation and environment in which you find yourself.

Email to work colleagues

Email to important client

As you can see, for formal emails, Un cordial saludo or Saludos cordiales are more appropriate than just a saludo. Other slightly less common options are Atentamente and Sinceramente. For the greeting use Estimado señor/Estimada señora or the abbreviated version, Estimado Sr./Estimada Sra. Instead of estimado, Buenas días/tardes are also fine. If you’re unsure who exactly will receive it, and really want to be formal, then A quien le corresponda (To whom it may concern) or Muy señores míos can be used. Muy señores míos is extremely formal and is best reserved for older people is positions of importance.

Informal promotional email to customer

What about contacting a company yourself to ask for information, complain, book, or cancel/contract a service?

Email asking for information

It’s best to use the imperfect tense (quería) when asking for things, or in this case information. Quiero saber un… sounds slightly abrupt. To be more formal, as we’ll see in a moment, you can switch to the conditional: querría or me gustaría. Unless you’re writing to a particular person who you’re already familiar with, use the plural you – vosotros or ustedes.

Formal email asking for information

Espero su/tu respuesta, and the more informal espero tus noticias, although literally saying ‘I’m waiting for your reply/news’, translate as ‘looking forward to hearing from you’. In Spanish, unlike English, it’s perfectly normal to use the imperative instead of the imperfect or conditional to ask for things. Me gustaría que me confirmasen... in the email above could, for example, be changed to Confírmenme por favor que… It’s good to add the por favor though as it softens the reception – mind your Ps and Qs. Using the imperative also comes in handy when complaining about something, as you normally want action to be taken to sort out the problem. If you’re annoyed or angry (as Carmina is in the first example below) then using usted can be a good way to show your distaste and distance yourself from the person you’re writing to. Particularly so if otherwise you’d use tu. If you’re really pissed off of course then you can throw everything out the window and write as informally as you wish.

Complaint email from angry customer

In the next example, Carmina is somewhat calmer and the email similarly so.

Complaint email

Booking or reserving something by email is similar to asking for information – use the imperfect or conditional to ask for what you want.

Reserving a time to see a flat

Estar interesado is a useful phrase that you can use in lots of situations whenever you’re interested in or want something. Two other useful phrases are darse de alta and darse de baja. They encompass quite a few different English words. Darse de alta means: join, register, enroll or sign up, while darse de baja is: close/cancel (account), unsubscribe (membership) or leave/resign (employment). Let’s see them in our final example email:

Email to cancel a subscription

Alta and baja can also be used as nouns. Alta can be ‘membership’ as in: Solicita el alta en el club llamando al secretario (Apply for club membership by calling the secretary); or ‘discharge/all-clear’, Me dieron el alta tres días después de la operación (They discharged me three days after the operation). Baja is the opposite of alta. It means ‘cancellation’ as in: Solicita la baja en el club llamando al secretario (Cancel your club membership by calling the secretary); or being off sick or injured: Estuve de baja 2 semanas con la gripe (I was off sick 2 weeks with flu), El médico me dio la baja (The doctor wrote me a sick note), El equipo tiene dos bajas (The team has two players out due to injury).

P.S. Postscript in Spanish is P.D. (postdata) which wraps up this post!