Letter Writing: Greetings, salutations, and f - Cchatty

Letter Writing: Greetings, salutations, and forms of address.

The word order of name and greeting is different in Chinese and English. This is true for greeting someone in person or in a letter:

English: Hello, Miss Zhang.
Chinese: Miss Zhang, hello. Zhāng Xiǎojie, nǐ hǎo.
张小姐，你好！

When writing to your own parents in Chinese (for most of you, this would only be when doing an assignment for class, of course!), it is not correct to address them as fùmǔ 父母,
“parents,” as in “Hello, parents,” but rather as:

Dad, Mom: hello!
Bàba, Māma: nǐmen hǎo.
爸爸、 妈妈：你们好。

NOTE: In Chinese a colon is used after the person or people being addressed, rather than a comma as in English! The phrase “It was so nice to hear from you,” so common at
the beginning of a letter in English, is not used in Chinese. Instead, write:

I was so happy to receive your letter.
Hěn gāoxìng shōudào nǐde láixìn.
很高兴收到你的来信。

At the end of a letter it is incorrect to use zàijiàn 再见, because you aren’t actually “seeing” or “meeting” the person face to face.

In English, many people are fond of ending their letter with the phrase “With love, . . . ” It is incorrect grammatically to say in Chinese gēn ài 跟爱，since gēn 跟 is used only to connect two nouns. In any case, the Chinese do not end a letter with an expression using the word “love.” After all, the word “love” (ài 爱) is used MUCH, MUCH less in Chinese than in English.

It is usual, instead, to end a letter to a close friend or family member with:

Take care of yourself .
Duōduō bǎozhòng.
多多保重 。

A more formal letter simply ends with:

Wish you well
Zhù hǎo
祝好

NOTE that in both cases there is no comma after the closing words and they are followed by your name underneath.