Summary

In our present, globalized world, the commercial borders have disappeared. Nowadays, many companies have constant dealings with other countries. Companies expand all over the world in search of markets for their business. In this context, the knowledge of English, which has become the global language for business and commerce, is very important.

The business relationship with other countries necessarily generate a great variety of communicative interactions. These may include written texts (letters, emails, reports, etc.) and oral interactions (conversations, speeches, presentations, etc.). In English, there is a great difference between the oral and the written language, which is reflected in the use of different expressions and syntactical structures. Similarly, there is a great difference between the formal and the informal language. The former is used when speaking to a superior or to someone that we do not know; the latter is used with family, friends and colleagues. As with the oral and written languages, the formal and the informal language use different words and syntactical expression. In English, it is very important to differentiate the formal from the informal language and use each one in the appropriate situation.

The written language is often reflected in business letters and emails. These two types of text, which are so common in the working environment, require a special layout, which means a specific disposition of the elements (addresses, date, opening and closing phrases, etc) as well as a number of standard phrases, like: Dear Sir/Madam, Yours sincerely, etc. The date, which is an essential element in a business letter, has a special format which might be different in British and American English.

Letters and emails and other business documents must be written in accordance to the rules that apply to each type of document, but they must also be written without spelling or syntactical mistakes. For this, it is necessary to develop the writing skills and be aware, for example of the syntactical structures of English statements and questions, which very often differ from those of our mother tongue. Spelling and punctuation often seem unimportant, but they are essential parts of a text. Connectords are also very important because they help to link the different ideas together and give coherence to a text.