Ready-made templates: business letter in English with translation

If you think that nobody writes letters nowadays and that the assignments in English courses “Write a letter to your colleagues…” are nonsense, you are very wrong. – is a load of rubbish, you’re very wrong.

Sure, no one sends carrier pigeons, messengers on horseback or carries stamped envelopes to the post office anymore, everyone just clicks on the SEND button and adds just an email in the address field. However, letters for business are EVERYTHING: you want to give an update – write a letter; a holiday request – write a letter; you have a question for your boss – write a letter; you are tired of writing a letter and decided to quit – write a letter! And given that the CIS market is now literally occupied by outsourcing companies, all business correspondence is bound to be in English with Canadian/American/any other bosses in CC. However, don’t let this business passion for correspondence scare you, because today we will teach you how to compose business emails correctly and give you an example of an official letter in English with translation for any occasion of life.

Types of business letters and what is written in them

1. Application/Cover Letter

The knowledge of how to write a formal application letter in English will definitely be useful in the job application process. It is very appropriate to send a Cover Letter when responding to a job vacancy, where you describe what you are interested in the position and why it is suitable for you. In this way, the potential employer has the opportunity to assess your communication style, check your literacy, and your ability to conduct business correspondence.

2. Letter of Resignation

Often, companies ask their employees to send a Letter of Resignation when changing jobs. Usually, this letter is sent to HR managers, mentors, company management, departments, etc. In this way, the employee confirms that their intention to leave the company is official, voluntary and final.

3. Letter of Recommendation

This letter is a good addition to a CV. Often, when changing jobs, the new boss asks the candidate to provide a Letter of Recommendation. This letter serves as a kind of feedback about the employee from the previous place of work. It includes the candidate’s characteristics, the impression of the superiors about the work, the ability to work in a team, etc.

4. Order Letter

For an ordinary user, when placing an order for a product or service online, it is enough to write a message in an official form. However, if you work in the trade sector or ask another company to provide you with a service, you should be able to write a business letter competently.

You can also use such an email to delegate an official task to your employees, or to ask for help from the relevant department at work.

5. Complaint Letter

This type of letter will be useful not only in your work. Sometimes we order goods from the Internet or have a holiday abroad, and the product or service does not meet the [price = quality] formula. This is where the Complaint Letter comes into play, as it will help you to make a request for a refund, compensation, and generally inform the service representative or manager of your dissatisfaction in a discreet and ethical manner.

6. Adjustment Letter

This type of official email is sent as a response to a complaint. It usually contains an apology for the inconvenience caused, possible solutions to the problem, and the terms and conditions for receiving compensation. Such emails are important for service providers, as they help to avoid chargeback requests, negative reviews on social media, and other similar troubles.

7. Inquiry Letter

If you need to request any important information from your boss, a government bureau, or a law enforcement official, an Inquiry Letter is an indispensable type of letter. You can specify a list of details that you want to know, as well as all the necessary nuances.

8. Follow-Up Letter

If you’ve already sent an email, but you just need to make corrections, update the data, or add to it, you can send a Follow-Up Letter. It is thematically linked to the previously sent email and indicates what information has been updated or supplemented.

9. Acknowledgement Letter

A very simple but nevertheless important type of letter. After all, it is the Acknowledgement Letter that is used to confirm the receipt of information, documents, a response, or anything else. This rather short letter serves as a delivery report, which helps to understand that communication between the addressee and the addressee has been established and the information has not been lost.

Templates for business emails in English

Templates for business emails in English
We have collected the principles, structure, and examples of business emails in one place so that you can always have access to them.

Each example of a formal email in English that you can get below can be safely used as a template to create your own email. ⬇️