How to Translate Business Emails: 5 Rules

Business correspondence isn't a friend chat. Machine translation often misfires here: too dry, too casual, or just weird. Here are 5 rules.

1. Formality matters most

In German — always Sie. In English — "Dear Mr./Ms. [surname]", not "Hi". Japanese has an entire politeness system. Translating friendly "Hi Mike!" literally in a business email looks too familiar.

2. Structure is the same everywhere

Greeting → thanks for previous message → main point → specific request or proposal → closing. This scheme works in any culture. If the translator rearranged blocks — fix manually.

3. Closing phrases are almost memorized

English: "Best regards", "Kind regards", "Sincerely"
German: "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", "Viele Grüße" (less formal)
French: "Cordialement", "Bien à vous"
Don't try to translate "Yours sincerely" word-by-word — use the accepted formula in target language.

4. Names and titles — don't translate

"Ivan Ivanov, Sales Manager" — keep as-is. Don't translate job titles into something awkward. "Project Manager" works in many languages without translation.

5. Double-check

After machine translation, ALWAYS reread: does it sound polite? Any ambiguities? Are dates and numbers correctly formatted (US: 04/15/2025, EU: 15/04/2025!)?

Useful templates

Information request:

Dear Mr. Smith,
I hope this email finds you well. I would like to inquire about [topic]. Could you please provide me with more details?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Best regards, [name]

Apologizing for delay:

Dear [Name],
Thank you for your patience. Due to [reason], [action] has been delayed. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Best regards, [name]

Main advice

If the email is important — translate with three different translators and compare. On our site you can do this in one click: Google, LibreTranslate, and MyMemory.