Address in a letter by name. How to start a business letter
Comrade or master? How to apply?
What forms of appeal are there?
Word Dear used as a neutral form of politeness, usually in combination with the addressee’s first name and patronymic, as well as with the words “mister” (plus the addressee’s last name), “comrade” (plus the addressee’s last name), “colleague” (plus the addressee’s last name). Used with names by position, rank, social status.
When contacting the addressee, it is necessary to take into account his field of activity and official position. People's representatives, honored figures of science and culture, and high-ranking officials are addressed with the words “deeply respected” and “much respected.” In other cases - “dear”:
Dear Nikolai Evgenievich!
Dear Ivan Petrovich!
Dear Mr. Ivanov!
In business correspondence, it is customary to address the recipient by name and patronymic.
When contacting a mass recipient:
Dear Sirs! Gentlemen!
Dear Colleagues! (to people of the same profession)
Dear veterans!
According to the Civil Procedure Code Russian Federation(Article 158 part 2), participants in the trial address the judges with the words Dear Court!, and they give their testimony and explanations while standing. Deviations from this rule may be permitted with the permission of the presiding officer.
The army still has an official appeal comrade.
When addressing, it is possible to use either an exclamation point or a comma, but uniformity is recommended. If there is a comma, the text of the letter begins with a lowercase letter. If there is an exclamation point, write the first sentence in capitals.
"Gentlemen!" or “Ladies and gentlemen!” - what is the best way to address men and women?
When addressing men and women at the same time, they often say “Ladies and gentlemen!” This is an unsuccessful copy of the English language (Ladies and Gentlemen). In Russian the word gentlemen corresponds equally to singular forms sir And madam, and "madam" is included in the number of "gentlemen".
Do I need to call my interlocutor by name and patronymic?
Even in the Russian-speaking environment, it is customary to address Russians and call them by name and patronymic; calling them by name only is considered insufficiently polite. Right Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, but not Vladimir Putin. When addressing a foreigner (or being in a foreign-language cultural environment), there is no need to use a patronymic.
How was it previously customary to address your interlocutor?
Noble etiquette. Addresses among the nobility had to strictly correspond to the rank, title and origin of the person being addressed. These appeals strictly correlated with the “Table of Ranks” (it was in effect almost unchanged until 1917). To titled persons ( Grand Duke, prince, count, duke, baron) were addressed according to the title: Your Highness, Your Excellency, Your Serene Highness.
Military etiquette. The system of appeals corresponded to the system of military ranks. Full generals are supposed to say Your Excellency, lieutenant generals and major generals - Your Excellency. Officers, sub-ensigns and candidates for a class position are called superiors and senior staff and chief officers by rank, adding the word Mr., for example, Mr. Captain, Mr. Colonel, other lower ranks title staff officers and captains - Your Highness, other chief officers - Your Honor (those with a count or princely title - Your Excellency).
Departmental etiquette used largely the same system of addresses as the military one.
Forms of title in Tsarist Russia
When addressing persons who had certain ranks of the “Table of Ranks,” persons of equal or lower rank were required to use the following titles (depending on the class):
“YOUR EXCELLENCY” - to persons in the ranks of 1st and 2nd classes;
“YOUR EXCELLENCY” - to persons in the ranks of 3 and 4 classes;
“YOUR HIGHNESS” - to persons in the ranks of 5th class;
“YOUR HONOR” - to persons in the ranks of grades 6–8;
“YOUR NOBILITY” - to persons in the ranks of grades 9–14.
In addition, in Russia there were titles used when addressing members of the Imperial House of Romanov and persons of noble origin:
"YOUR IMPERIAL MAJESTY" - to the Emperor, Empress and Empress Dowager;
“YOUR IMPERIAL HIGHNESS” - to the grand dukes (the children and grandchildren of the emperor, and in 1797–1886, the great-grandsons and great-great-grandchildren of the emperor);
“YOUR HIGHness” - to the princes of the imperial blood;
“YOUR HIGHNESS” - to the younger children of the emperor’s great-grandsons and their male descendants, as well as to the most serene princes by grant;
“YOUR LORD” - to princes, counts, dukes and barons;
“YOUR NOBILITY” - to all other nobles.
When addressing clergy in Russia, the following titles were used:
“YOUR EMPLOYMENT” - to metropolitans and archbishops;
“YOUR Eminence” - to the bishops;
“YOUR REVERENCE” - to archimandrites and abbots of monasteries, archpriests and priests;
“YOUR REVERENCE” - to archdeacons and deacons.
Who was usually called “sovereign”?
Word sovereign in Russia in the old days they used it indifferently, instead of lord, master, landowner, nobleman. In the 19th century, the tsar was addressed as the Most Gracious Sovereign, the great princes were addressed as the Most Gracious Sovereign, all private individuals were addressed as the Most Gracious Sovereign (when addressing a superior), my gracious Sovereign (to an equal), my Sovereign (to an inferior). The words sudar (also with emphasis on the second syllable), sudarik (friendly) were used mainly in oral speech.
Who was called “comrade” and when?
Appeal comrade used in Soviet society. The word comrade with a surname before the revolution indicated membership in the revolutionary political party, including communists.
D. S. Likhachev in the book “Notes and Observations. From notebooks different years” wrote about modern methods of address:
This is what historians do not write about and what made a very big impression in their time: this is the “atmosphere of appeals” to each other.
1. When in 1918 everyone started talking to each other instead of sir, madam(on South - madam) comrade, it gave the following impression:
A. Amikoshonstvo. Man addressing stranger comrade, seemed to be making friends, drinking buddies. Often answered: The goose is no friend to the pig! And this was not class-related, but came as if from a sense of self-preservation. Professor speaking to students comrades, seemed to be seeking popularity and even a careerist, for the rector of the university was elected by the students.<...>Therefore, serious scientists (Zhirmunsky even defiantly) continued to contact students Colleagues(Zhirmunsky pronounced poorly l).
B. What was also striking about this address was that women and men did not differ. Women were also approached comrade(now this is no longer the case, and all women have become girls, or rather, they are left without a method of conversion).
2. Gradually, by the end of the 20s, to appeal comrade got used to it, and it even became pleasant - all people were, if not comrades in the true sense of the word, then at least equal. With the word comrade one could turn to both a schoolboy and an old woman. But then Stalin's purges began<...>, and then one week, I don’t remember what year, residents suddenly began to notice that policemen, conductors, postal employees stopped saying the word comrade and began to contact citizen And citizen. And these words bore the imprint of alienation, extreme formality (now this has disappeared and even the word citizen). And this appeal, essentially new (although it rarely happened before, when people were angry with each other or detained a lawbreaker), began to fill the streets, official life, and created an atmosphere. Every person turned out to be suspicious, under suspicion; the threat of possible arrest hung over everyone; in the words citizen and citizen there seemed to be a prison.
The order to stop using the word comrade was apparently secret, but everyone immediately felt it.
(About oral and written language, old and new. 1989)
How rarely we began to write letters, even emails. Basically, this opportunity is remembered only when there is a business need or when sending out advertising messages. However, the letter of appeal tool still remains one of the most effective ways interactions of people with each other. It is very important to pay attention to the style of writing, addressing the addressee and the general direction of the text, especially in business letters. So what is the correct way to address the recipient in a letter?
Sir or Madam. This appeal, which was extremely relevant in messages of previous years and remained official in Russia until 1917, is used in some cases to this day. It can be used when addressing business partners, politicians, businessmen, and high-ranking officials. Currently, this word has a certain social connotation and a certain connotation. It would be completely inappropriate when writing to socially vulnerable groups: “gentlemen, pensioners,” “gentlemen, refugees,” etc.An example of a letter using “Lord” can be downloaded from us: .
A sample letter with such an appeal can be downloaded from us: .
If you don't know the recipient's name, you can ultimately just say hello or good day and outline the gist of the written message. It is important to consider and observe etiquette and pay attention to the other components of a business letter.
Often, starting a letter with the address “Dear...”, I remember how one of the senior leaders, when preparing letters to the president, chairman of the government or president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, demanded the address “Dear...”. For some reason this requirement caused us a lot of jokes. Remembered the “absent-minded man” from Basseynaya Street Samuil Marshak and his famous address “Dearly respected carriage! Dear carriage!” They were caustically interested in how deeply we respect the comrade.
And in vain they giggled, by the way. Addresses beginning with the words “deeply respected” and “much respected” are used when formally addressing especially important persons and officials occupying a high position. This is how it is customary to address not only the top officials of the state, members of the government and parliament, but also famous scientists and public figures. By addressing a venerable academician simply as “dear” in a letter, you may inadvertently offend the recipient.
It’s not every day that we write to the president or members of the government, but sometimes we have to write letters with any complaint or request to high authorities. I don’t know how deeply you respect your mayor or governor, but if you have to write him a letter with any request, I sincerely advise you to use the address “dearly respected.” The word means "highly respected" ( Dictionary Ozhegova) or “worthy of deep respect” (Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova). I think any government representative would read such an appeal with pleasure. Just one word at the beginning of a letter, but sometimes it can tip the scales in your favor. As they say, “a gentle calf sucks two queens.”
Recently, on one of the forums, I came across the question of what punctuation mark to put after the address at the beginning of the letter: an exclamation point or a comma. Out of habit, I put an exclamation mark - that’s what I was taught, but I also encountered some bosses who demand that I put a comma after the address. Apparently those people who often correspond with English language, automatically transfer many rules of English grammar to correspondence in Russian. Sometimes business literature, which gives examples of this kind of appeal, is also misleading:
Dear Sirs,
We have carefully considered your letter, in which...
(DearSirs! Business correspondence in English. –M. Publishing association “Culture”, 1993. – 328 p.)
Which is correct?
Russian language help service on the portal Gramota.ru allows both options. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that after the exclamation mark there is a sentence with capital letter, and after the comma – with a lowercase one.
The address in a Russian business letter is usually located in the center and separated from the main text by one space. The first sentence of the letter begins with a paragraph. Well, how do you start writing a sentence with a lowercase letter after a space and even from a paragraph? But in a personal letter, the text often begins to be written on the same line as the address. In this case, after the address, you can put a comma, and continue to write the text of the letter with a lowercase letter.
Why is there an exclamation point? I will give several possible answers:
“An exclamation point (!) is a punctuation mark that is placed at the end of a sentence to express surprise, appeal, strong feelings, excitement, and the like.”
“The names of most punctuation marks in the Russian language are originally Russian, and the term punctuation marks itself goes back to the verb punctuation - “stop”, “hold in motion.” If a writer puts an exclamation point at the end of a sentence, he shows how much he cares about the content of his own statement.”
To a question from collegiate secretary Efim Fomich Perekladin, the hero of Chekhov’s story “Exclamation Mark ( Yule story)”, “when an exclamation mark is placed in papers,” his wife Marfusha, who often boasted that “it was not for nothing that she studied at a boarding school for seven years” and knew all the grammar by heart, confidently answered: “This mark is placed with addresses, exclamations and expressions delight, indignation, joy, anger and other feelings.”
My answer is that by placing an exclamation point after the address, we strive to attract the attention of the addressee and urge him not only to read the letter, but to fulfill our request, to “reach out”, and sometimes even “shout out”. Dear Ivan Ivanovich!
What's between the word "respected" and the exclamation point? In business correspondence in Russian, it is customary to address the recipient by name and patronymic. As a last resort, you can contact by last name: “Dear Mr. Petrov!” In my opinion, calling by last name is more appropriate in a letter of complaint than in a letter of request. Our acquaintances usually address us by our first and patronymic names; such an address endears us to the recipient; it is more difficult to refuse acquaintances.
When addressing several addressees at once, the address “Dear Sirs!” is currently used, and when addressed in internal memos within the same organization, it is appropriate to use the address “Dear Colleagues!”
Diplomatic correspondence has its own rules. There it is customary to address people by title: “Dear Mr. Ambassador!”, “Dear Mr. Minister,” or “Your Excellency!” But that's a separate topic
