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I need to write a formal letter to a group of people consisting of two females and two males. One of the females is unmarried.

"Dear Sirs" must be out of the question. "Dear Madam / Miss / Sirs" also doesn't sound right; "dear all", "hello" or "hi" all sound to informal. As there are four of them I thought about "Dear Group", but I'm afraid some may take this the wrong way. Using their names as in "Dear Ms Black, Ms Brown, Mr Green and Mr White" could also be a possibility I guess, but it doesn't sound good to me either. Not being a native English speaker only makes finding a good solution more difficult.

Good ideas, anyone?

Jonah
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  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2112/dear-sir-or-madam-versus-to-whom-it-may-concern –  Feb 18 '15 at 07:34
  • Ditto: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/292/is-it-appropriate-to-use-the-salutation-dear-all-in-a-work-email – mplungjan Feb 18 '15 at 07:53
  • RE: Above link, I have received emails addressed to "Dear All" and I knew I was included in that group, but it was sent to about 10-15 different people, and we were all women. I didn't find it to be chatty, inappropriate, lazy or confusing. The tone of the correspondence also depends on what follows the salutation. – Mari-Lou A Feb 18 '15 at 08:23
  • I disagree that Hello or Good morning sounds informal. – Arsen Y.M. Feb 18 '15 at 08:40
  • Can you give a little more detail about the nature of the group, the nature of the communication, and how he letter will be sent (paper or electronically)? – Нет войне Feb 18 '15 at 16:42

3 Answers3

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In my view, the simplest and most elegant solution is to start off simply with

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

having made sure to include the names of all the recipients in the postal address block pertaining to the addressees (if you are sending everyone a paper copy of the letter), so that all of them are able to see who else is covered by your salutation.

If it's an email, you can use the same formula, except that you would include everybody's name in the To: field rather than as part of a postal address block. (Just take care not to insert the address of anyone you are writing to directly, rather than merely sending a copy of the email to, in the Cc: field — or worse still, in the Bcc: field.)

Just make sure you include everyone's actual name in the To: field, not just their email address (e.g. Natasha Smith <nattysmith@aol.com>), so that they all know the real identities of the other people you are sending the letter to (unless it is completely obvious from their email address who they are, e.g. Zebediah.Brown@acmecorp.com rather than an address that reads more like whosyourdaddy7@funnyfarm.co.uk).

Addressing everybody in the form of a list of names ("Dear Ms Black, Ms Brown, Mr Green and Mr White") is not a terrible solution; it's a bit clumsy, but at least you can be sure that no-one will feel ignored or otherwise disrespected.

However, companies often have their own preferred ways of doing things, so you may want to check what the standard mode of address in the target organization is (if there is one at all) by first calling their PR department or equivalent. But if you're still in doubt, actually addressing people by name is the safest approach, because it is the least likely to generate offence.

Erik Kowal
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In invitations, sometimes for the sake of humour even if inviting just a few persons, we could write the French

which literally mean ladies and gentlemen.

which is shortened to

  • Mesdames / Messieurs
  • or Mesdames, Messieurs.

The singular would be

  • Madame / Monsieur
Blessed Geek
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  • +1 English does tend to fall back on French when we lack something, especially plural titles like this. I would certain write "Mesdames et Messieurs" (even quite seriously) before I'd ever write "Madams and Sirs", which just sits wrong with me. I think that may be for a different kind of formal, though. – mgw854 Feb 18 '15 at 14:42
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  1. Dear Madams and Sirs

  2. Dear Friends

  3. Dear colleagues

Babel
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