At some point every foreigner studying the Polish language needs to write an email in Polish. Even if the email is supposed to be short and simple, obstacles appear at the very beginning, the moment they need to choose the right opening phrase, greeting. It turns out that there are enormous differences between Polish and other languages, and ignorance of the basic rules of writing emails in Polish might result in unpleasant misunderstandings.
MOST COMMON MISTAKES IN OPENING PHRASES OF EMAILS IN POLISH
Foreigners, as well as Polish people who use foreign languages a lot, often literally translate the phrases from their languages, i.e. they calque, when writing an email in Polish. As a result greetings, such as Drogi Panie Dyrektorze Kowalski; Szanowny Panie Marku, etc. appear. No only are such phrases incorrect, but they also show lack of respect towards the recipient of the email, which is clearly not what the sender intends to do.
SEVERAL BASIC RULES. FORMAL CORRESPONDENCE IN POLISH
The following rules will allow you to open your email in a friendly way that will be relevant to the person and situation.
1. Forms, which we usually use as we open an email and greet the recipient are as follows:
Szanowny Panie (when writing to one male recipient; literally: Honorable Sir)
Szanowna Pani (when writing to one female recipient; literally: Honorable Madam)
Szanowni Państwo (mixed-gender group, or when we don’t really know the recipient)
or less frequently (if we want to be precise as to the gender of the recipients)
Szanowni Panowie (when writing to a group of male recipients only)
Szanowne Panie (when writing to a group of female recipients only)
IMPORTANT: never in greetings like that, or in a situation when you’re addressing someone directly, should you use a surname of that person! A phrase Szanowny Panie Wiśniewski is... rude, or may even sound arrogant.
2. Academic titles, corporate titles and job titles in email greetings.
Here we use different forms. We write:
Szanowny Panie Dyrektorze
Szanowny Panie Prezesie
Szanowny Panie Prezydencie
however, the same as before, we do not add the recipient’s surname, and the name of the position or title needs to be put in the Vocative case.
Now, this is what happens when a woman with a title is our recipient:
Szanowna Pani Dyrektor
Szanowna Pani Prezes
Szanowna Pani Prezydent
Right, your eyes do not deceive you. With regard to women, the titles remain in the Nominative case, however, the tendency for introducing female forms is growing. It’s possible that we will soon start using forms like prezeska, dyrektorka, prezydentka.
3. Remember NOT to use the form drogi/-a (dear) in formal opening phrases. In the Polish language this adjective is reserved only for ... private correspondence. Therefore, we can write Droga Aniu, Drogi Marku, but NEVER Drogi Panie Prezesie!
You’ll soon be able to read more on semi-formal and informal emails greetings on our blog.
4. There is one more form left: Witam, which has recently become very common. It is considered incorrect by linguists, and, what’s more, it is believed to express the superiority and condescension of the writer towards the recipient. While we agree that in formal correspondence that form is a most unfortunate choice and should not be used, we do believe that in semi-formal or informal emails it is acceptable.
COMMA OR EXCLAMATION MARK?
For many years Polish people used to put an exclamation mark [!] after the greeting, which has recently started to be replaced by a comma [,], perhaps under the influence of the Anglo-Saxon epistolography. These days both versions:
Szanowny Panie!
Szanowny Panie,
are correct. Remember, however, that if you choose to use a comma, you have to start the first sentence of the email with a small letter.
More information on writing emails in Polish will follow soon, in the meantime check out our FB profile
