Business English Email: 30 Proven Phrases | 商業英文 Email (2026)

Roughly 347 billion emails were sent every day in 2025, and a good share of them landed in the inbox of someone who reads them in a second language. If you work in Taiwan and deal with overseas clients, suppliers, or a head office, your 商務英語電子郵件 is often the only version of you they ever meet. Get the tone wrong and a simple request reads as rude; get it right and people reply faster. The good news: professional email runs on a small set of repeatable phrases, not on perfect grammar or a big vocabulary.

What Makes a Business English Email Work｜商業英文 email 的關鍵

A good 商務英語電子郵件 is not about fancy words. It is about structure and predictability. Your reader is busy, so they scan. If they can find the point in the first two lines, you have already won. The four-part shape below works for almost everything: a request, a reply, an apology, a follow-up.

1. 主題行 — specific, 5 to 8 words. “Q3 budget review — need your numbers by Fri” beats “Question”.
2. Reason for writing — one line stating why you’re emailing.
3. The body — the request, the details, the deadline.
4. 擱筆 — a polite close and your name.

Notice that greetings and closings are the easiest parts to standardize. According to the 劍橋字典, “Dear + name” remains the safe formal opener in written correspondence, while “Hi + name” now reads as normal in most internal teams. Pick one and stop overthinking it.

How to Start a Business Email: 7 Opening Lines｜開頭七句

The opening line does two jobs at once — it greets the reader and tells them why the email exists. The mistake I see most from Taiwanese professionals is translating 「敝公司想詢問」 word for word into something like “Our company want to ask you.” Skip the translation. Reach for a ready-made phrase instead:

• “I’m writing to ask about…” (詢問)
• “I’m writing to follow up on our call yesterday.” (跟進)
• “Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.” (感謝回覆)
• “I hope this email finds you well.” (客套開場 — fine, but slightly dated)
• “I’m reaching out regarding the invoice dated May 3.” (提及具體事項)
• “It was great meeting you at the Taipei trade show.” (建立連結)
• “Following our conversation, here’s the proposal we discussed.” (附上文件)

One honest opinion: “I hope this email finds you well” is fine, but it’s the email equivalent of clearing your throat. If you already know the person, drop it and get to the point. It saves the reader three seconds and makes you sound more confident. The video below from engVid walks through more openers and closings if you want to hear the phrases spoken aloud.

Making Requests Without Sounding Pushy｜提出請求

English handles requests through distance. The more indirect the phrasing, the more polite it sounds — which feels backwards to many Chinese speakers, where directness can read as sincerity. In English email, “Send me the file” is an order. “Could you please send me the file when you have a moment?” is a request. Same task, very different reception.

Keep these three levels in your pocket and match them to how big the favor is:

• Small ask: “Could you please…” / “Would you mind…” (小請求)
• Bigger ask: “I’d really appreciate it if you could…” (較大請求)
• Adding a deadline: “Would it be possible to have this by Thursday?” (加上期限)

Softening words do a lot of quiet work here. “Just”, “when you get a chance”, and “if possible” take the sting out of a deadline. Compare “I need this today” with “If possible, I’d love to have this by end of day.” The second one still communicates urgency — it just doesn’t corner the reader. For phone-based requests, the same politeness rules apply; our guide to telephone English for Taiwan professionals covers the spoken versions.

Giving Updates and Chasing Replies｜追蹤與跟進

Follow-up emails are where most professionals freeze, because nobody wants to sound like they’re nagging. The fix is to give a reason for the reminder rather than just repeating yourself. “Just checking in” with nothing attached is weak. “Just checking in — the printer needs our final artwork by Monday to hit the launch date” gives the reader a concrete why.

Useful phrases for updates and chasing:

• “Just following up on my email from last week.” (跟進)
• “I wanted to keep you in the loop on…” (讓你知道進度)
• “Any update on this would be great.” (詢問進度)
• “No rush, but whenever you get a chance…” (不急但提醒)
• “Circling back on the quote below.” (回到先前話題)

A rule I’d stand behind: wait two to three business days before your first follow-up, then a week for the second. Firing off a reminder the next morning reads as anxious and, worse, trains people to see your name as pressure. Silence is usually a full inbox, not a rejection.

Apologizing and Handling Problems｜道歉與處理問題

Mistakes happen, and how you write the apology shapes whether the relationship survives it. English business apologies are short, specific, and forward-looking. Long emotional apologies actually make readers nervous. State what went wrong, take responsibility in one line, and pivot to the fix.

• “Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.” (為延遲致歉)
• “I’m sorry for the confusion — let me clarify.” (為誤會致歉)
• “That was my mistake, and here’s how we’ll fix it.” (承擔責任)
• “Thank you for your patience while we sorted this out.” (感謝耐心)

Skip “I’m terribly sorry for this huge inconvenience I have caused you.” It over-apologizes and, oddly, sounds less sincere to a native reader. Grammarly’s writing team makes the same point: a clean, specific apology rebuilds trust faster than a dramatic one. The same discipline that makes idioms land also makes apologies land — see our breakdown of business idioms for the workplace for the tone Taiwan pros are aiming for.

How to End a Business Email｜結尾與署名

The closing line and sign-off feel small, but they set the last impression. The safest all-purpose closer is still “I look forward to hearing from you,” followed by “Best regards” and your name. Match the formality of your sign-off to your greeting: if you opened with “Hi Jenny,” don’t close with “Yours faithfully” — that mismatch reads as a template someone forgot to edit.

Sign-offs, ranked roughly from formal to casual:

• “Yours sincerely,” — most formal, for named recipients (最正式)
• “Best regards,” — the reliable default (通用)
• “Kind regards,” — warm but professional (溫和專業)
• “Thanks,” / “Cheers,” — casual, for people you know (輕鬆)

One thing worth fixing today: an email signature with your name, title, and company saves the reader from guessing who you are, and it makes a small company look organized. If you’re job hunting, the same care you put into a sign-off belongs in your application — our English job interview guide carries the tone through to the conversation.

Formal vs. Casual: Reading the Room｜正式 vs. 輕鬆

There is no single “correct” register — there’s only the right one for the reader. A first email to a new client is formal. The tenth email in a friendly thread can be three words. The skill is reading which situation you’re in. This table maps the same intent across both registers:

When you genuinely can’t tell, default to slightly more formal. It’s far easier to warm up over the next few emails than to walk back a message that came across as too familiar with someone you’ve never met.

5 Mistakes Taiwanese Professionals Make｜常見錯誤

These five come up again and again in emails I’ve reviewed for Taiwan-based teams. None of them are about grammar — they’re about tone and habit, which is exactly why spell-check never catches them.

1. Translating directly from Chinese. 「麻煩您」 has no clean English twin. Reach for “Could you please…” instead of building the sentence from the Chinese up.
2. Being too direct. “Give me the report” feels efficient but reads as an order. Add “Could you” and “please.”
3. Over-apologizing. Three “sorry”s in one email dilute all of them. One clear apology is stronger.
4. Vague subject lines. “Hello” or “Question” gets ignored. Name the topic and, if there’s a deadline, the date.
5. Forgetting the sign-off. An email that ends mid-thought with no “Best regards” and no name feels unfinished, even when the content is perfect.

The pattern behind all five is the same: professional English rewards clarity and a little warmth, not literal accuracy. That’s also why workplace idioms trip people up — the meaning lives in the phrase, not the individual words.

A Full Business Email, Start to Finish｜完整範例

Here’s how the pieces fit together in a real email — a follow-up to a supplier who hasn’t sent a quote. Notice how short it is. Length is not politeness.

主題： Follow-up — packaging quote for August order

嗨，莎拉，,

I’m following up on the packaging quote we discussed last Tuesday. No rush, but we’d like to confirm the August order by the end of this week, so any update would be a big help.

If it’s easier to hop on a quick call, just let me know a time that works for you.

Thanks so much for your help.

此致，,
Tina Lin
Purchasing, ABC Trading

Read it back and you’ll spot every move from this guide: a specific subject, a one-line reason, a softened deadline, an easy alternative, a warm close, and a full signature. Swap the details and you can reuse this skeleton for almost any follow-up you’ll ever send.

Frequently Asked Questions｜常見問題

Is “Dear” too formal for a business English email? No. “Dear + name” is the safe formal choice for a first contact or an external client. Switch to “Hi + name” once the thread turns friendly or for internal colleagues.

How long should a work email be? As short as it can be while staying clear. Most effective emails run three to five sentences. If yours passes ten lines, consider whether it should be a call instead.

How do I sound polite without sounding weak? Use indirect phrasing for the request (“Could you…”) but keep the deadline specific. Politeness lives in the phrasing; clarity lives in the details. You can have both.

Should I use emojis in a business email? With people you know well and internally, a single 🙂 can warm up a message. With a new client or anything formal, leave them out until they use one first.

來源

1. Cambridge Dictionary — Emails — reference on formal and informal email greetings and closings.
2. Grammarly — How to Apologize Professionally in an Email — guidance on specific, forward-looking apologies.
3. engVid — How to Write Professional Emails in English — video lesson on opening and closing phrases.

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