письмо, срочно

[stranger1]

скажите, плз, как лучше начать письмо, когда не знаешь имя и пол человека кому оно адресовано?

[Nina79]

To whom it may concern,

[Translucid Mushroom]

Смотря какое письмо

[layman]

http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?a=ForumReplies&MessNum=76214&L1=1&L2=2

[Nina79]

never say Dear Sirs!
1. exclamation point not used in English
2. if it goes to a woman, you look like a real ass
also, Dear All, is for correspondnece with people you know. not for business. (just an FYI)

accetable:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Collegues, (if this is going to be the case)

[Shumov]

***never say Dear Sirs!***

And why is that?

[Nina79]

b/c we just don't really do that in good english business corespondences

it looks chinzy

[Shumov]

When writing to a group of men it is perfectly acceptable, and what is more -- in many cases preferable, to start one's letter in this manner. Should one address a person 'Dear Sirs' one shall look like an ass (a long-eared mammal) regardless the addressee's sex. N'est-ce pas?

[Nina79]

the asker's question was about cases when you do not know who it is going to. if you know it is going to a group which is only men, fine, say "Dear Sirs" but without the exclamation point which makes it look chintzy

[Анатолий Д]

replace ! with :

[Nina79]

replace ! with , or :
, is most commonly used

but after "to whom it may concern" we always use :

[Shumov]

Goodie! I am glad we've got this one sorted.

(Anyway it doesn't matter, because if you don't know who the letter is going to it is very unlikely that they are ever going to get it.)

[Nina79]

yeah if you don't know who are writing to you really haven't done much research and it looks pretty bad these days (since you can always call the company and find out who to write to or find it on the net in these days of information overload). I haven't written a "to whom it may concern" letter in probably over 10 years.

[ms801]

I would second Nina79's last opinion: it is always better to do your homework and find out to whom you are writing. I would reserve "To whom it may concern" for confirmation letters, e.g. a letter confirming someone's employment. Often you do not know who will be reading that letter.

If you cannot find out the addressee's name, use "Dear Sir or Madam"/"Dear Sirs and Mesdames" (the latter sounds a little too official to me, but works for some situations).