Writing Letters in French
The following advice about writing letters in French is not
exhaustive, but should be regarded as information which will make
your letters more "French" and very importantly may avoid
misunderstandings or misinterpretations. Being familiar with some
of the conventions of French letter writing will also be of
interest when you receive letters in French or English from French
native speakers.
Laying out the letter
In formal letters if you are writing on a plain sheet of paper,
it is normal to write your name, without title, above your address
at the top of the page, on the left-hand side of the sheet. When
writing your own address at the top of the letter, it is of course
quite correct to place commas at the ends of lines, if you wish.
However, when writing the address of your French addressee in a
formal letter or on the envelope, it is worth remembering that
end-of-line punctuation is not the norm in France and may even be
regarded as a mistake or something which may cause a letter to be
misdirected.
The addressee’s name and address should be inserted below
your address on the right-hand side of the sheet. In a letter to
someone with a title, in a business for instance, the title is
placed after the addressee’s full name.
The full forms should always be used. Abbreviations can be used
on the envelope if the full form doesn’t fit (M. for
Monsieur; Mme for Madame and Mlle for
Mademoiselle). Note that the full stop is only used after
M.
The date comes after the addressee’s name and is usually
also on the right-hand side of the sheet.
When writing an informal letter it is customary not to include
either your own or the addressee’s address. In this type of
letter, people often write the name of the place they are in,
followed by the date at the top of the page. The place is the town,
city, village or other recognizable location.
Bordeaux, le 12 juillet 2002
In writing the date, the day number is preceded by le.
Note also that in French, unlike in English, names of the month are
not capitalized. The convention is to write dates: day-month-year.
More informally you can write this information in numerals:
12-07-02.
Greetings
In formal letters whether you know the name of the person you
are writing to or not:
To a man: Monsieur,
To a woman: Madame, Mademoiselle,
When you don’t know if your letter will be read by a man
or a woman: Madame, Monsieur, Messieurs,
To a lawyer: Maître,
This opening appears on the left-hand side. Note the use of the
comma, which is obligatory. Note: when writing to a woman and when
in doubt about her marital status, it is always better to use
Madame rather than Mademoiselle.
For official certificates, such as attestations of employment,
the opening usually is: À qui de droit (to whom it may
concern).
In slightly less formal letters if you know the name of the
addressee, you can also write:
Cher monsieur Dupont,
Chère madame Durand,
which is slightly less formal.
In a business letter when you have established a good
relationship with the addressee, cher/chère followed by the
addressee’s given name is appropriate:
Cher Antoine,
Chère Elisa,
In informal letters or when you know the addressee well, an
opening following cher/chère or mon cher/ma
chère is appropriate:
Cher Matthieu,
Chère Béatrice,
Chers Béatrice et Matthieu,
Chers tous,
Ma chère Béatrice,
Mon cher Papa,
Closing the Letter
If you read correspondence manuals in French you will probably
be surprised at how many potential letter endings there are for
formal correspondence. Modern practice is to use a limited number
of endings and to keep them shorter and less formal than was
formerly the case. The following are should be adequate for most
situations.
Formal endings:
In formal letters, the form of address chosen for the opening
formula should be reflected in the closing formula, i.e. if
you’ve started your letter with Madame, it should end
with something like: Veuillez agréer, Madame,
l’expression de mes salutations distinguées. All of
the examples below should be immediately followed by your
signature.
Dans l’attente de vous lire, je vous prie
d’agréer, Messieurs, l’expression de mes
sentiments distingués.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de mes
sentiments distingués.
Je vous adresse, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations
distinguées.
Je vous prie de croire, Madame, en nos sentiments
dévoués.
Less formal endings:
Salutations distinguées.
Cordialement,
In friendly personal letters, the following are often used:
Amicalement,
Bien à vous,
A bientôt,
Avec toute mon affection,
Grosses bises,
In letters to family members, endings are obviously freer, but
some typical ones are:
Grosses bises,
Affectueusement,
Je t’embrasse très fort,
Bisous,
Addressing the envelope
The address should be carefully written taking account of the
comments about laying out the letter made above. If you want to
include your return address on the envelope, this should be written
on the back of the envelope after the word: Exp. (short for
Expéditeur/-trice). An example would be along the lines
of:
Exp.: Mary O’Reilly, 867 Fifth Avenue, New York NY10022,
USA.
Street names
The full street name is often abbreviated in correspondence,
especially on the envelope. For example,
Avenue can be written Av. and Boulevard
Bd.
e.g. 180 Av. du Gal Leclerc (180 Avenue du
Général Leclerc)
Applying for a job
Job application forms are not the general practice. When
applying for a job, and unless otherwise stated, it is customary to
send, along with your Curriculum Vitae, a letter of application,
which should follow the general letter-writing conventions. This
letter is your opportunity to give more details about what you do
or have done.
The CV itself should be one or two pages long, no more. It
should present all information in a very clear and accessible
manner. A badly structured CV, or one which is too long and
detailed, probably won’t be read right through. Contact
details should come first. Personal information such as marital
status are optional, although the date of birth is usually
expected.
CVs are usually organized according to the chronological order,
either starting from the earliest date to the present day or vice
versa.The latter is usually preferred as your most recent position
is more likely to be relevant to the position you’re applying
for. If this is the option you go for, it is more logical to start
your CV with ‘Expérience professionnelle’
(previous employment) rather than with
‘Formation’ (education), although both are
acceptable. Other types of information such as hobbies are given
last. Referees are not usually listed on French CVs.
Download Specimen letters of formal and informal correspondence
