Where we start
The partnership has reached paper. Lumen Logistics has a draft contract ready for its Shanghai distributor, and you are the person sending it to Manager Wang. That takes two messages on two channels: a formal email that carries the contract, and a short WeChat that tells him it has arrived. They say the same thing and look nothing alike. Tonight is the shape of each, and why a WeChat written like an email fails in the same way as an email written like a chat.
★ What you walk out with tonight. The five blocks of a formal email and the stock phrase that fills each one, the three habits of a business WeChat, a subject line and a file name a reader can find again in a month, and two finished messages for the contract, an email in the email band and a WeChat in the WeChat band, with the counted index for each.
The shape of a formal email
5 min liveA formal business email in Chinese is usually built from five blocks, in this order. A salutation with 尊敬的 (zūnjìng de, dear, respected) and the reader's title. A greeting, 您好 (nín hǎo, hello, polite), on its own line. The purpose in the very first sentence of the body. The attachment and the offer of help, with 请查收 (qǐng cháshōu, please find attached) and 如有疑问 (rú yǒu yíwèn, if you have any questions). Then a closing and your signature. None of this comes from a published standard: it is the common practice of business correspondence, and these pages teach it as that.
LiveThe five blocks, filled in3 min▶
| Block | What goes in it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Salutation | 尊敬的 (zūnjìng de, dear, respected) + surname + title: 尊敬的王经理 (zūnjìng de Wáng jīnglǐ, dear Manager Wang), then a colon | Address by surname and title, as the Basic course taught for cards and meetings |
| 2 · Greeting | 您好 (nín hǎo, hello, polite) on its own line | The polite 您 (nín, you, polite) from the first word |
| 3 · Purpose | One sentence that says why you are writing, before any context | A busy reader decides in the first line whether to act now or later |
| 4 · Attachment and help | 请查收 (qǐng cháshōu, please find attached) after naming the file; 如有疑问 (rú yǒu yíwèn, if you have any questions) + 请随时与我联系 (qǐng suíshí yǔ wǒ liánxì, please contact me at any time) | Says what to open and leaves the door open |
| 5 · Closing | 感谢您的支持 (gǎnxiè nín de zhīchí, thank you for your support), optionally 此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect), then your name and company | Thanks first; the formula is a convention |
The order and the stock phrases are common practice in Chinese business email, not a rule from a style guide or a national standard; native writers vary them. Addressing a reader by surname and title is the one point here that the sources behind these pages document directly.
Self-study此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect): a convention, counted3 min▶
Many guides present 此致 (cǐzhì, with this I convey) and 敬礼 (jìnglǐ, respects) as the required close of a formal letter, written on two lines: 此致 (cǐzhì, with this I convey) indented under the body, 敬礼 (jìnglǐ, respects) at the left margin on the next line. It is widely observed, and you will see it in many emails from partners. It is a convention. The national standard often cited for it, GB/T 9704-2012, governs the layout of official government documents; it does not contain the formula and does not govern business letters at all.
The checker agrees in its own way. Lumen's contract email scores index 84 with the formula and 78 without it: both sit inside the email band of 70 to 92, so both fit. Use it when your partner's emails use it, or when you are unsure and the message is a first formal one; leave it out of a short reply to an email that did not.
On pinyin in these lists: words such as 看一下 (kàn yíxià, take a look) are written with the tone you say, yí before a fourth tone. Standard pinyin (GB/T 16159-2012) writes the original tone, yīxià, and allows the changed tone in teaching, which is what these pages do.
The email that started with the weather. A constructed case: Lumen Logistics, 鲁门物流 (Lǔmén Wùliú, Lumen Logistics), Manager Wang, the sender 陈静 (Chén Jìng, Lumen's coordinator) and every scenario on this page are invented for the running case. Lumen's first draft of the contract email opened, as an English email might, with two sentences about the week's meetings and only reached the contract in its third paragraph. Manager Wang's reply asked for the contract. The second draft put the purpose in its first line, 现将合作合同草稿发送给您 (xiàn jiāng hézuò hétong cǎogǎo fāsòng gěi nín, we now send you the draft partnership contract), and the reply that came back was about the price clause.
The shape of a business WeChat
5 min liveA business WeChat to a partner's manager keeps the respect and drops the frame. It opens with the title and a greeting in one line, 王经理您好 (Wáng jīnglǐ nín hǎo, hello, Manager Wang). It carries one purpose. It uses short lines, one point each, so it reads on a phone in a lift. And it has no classical closing: no 此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect), a plain 谢谢 (xièxie, thank you) instead. These are common practice among people who do business on WeChat, not rules anyone publishes, and they are taught here as that.
LiveThree habits of a business WeChat3 min▶
The title, in the first words. 王经理您好 (Wáng jīnglǐ nín hǎo, hello, Manager Wang) does the work of the email's first two blocks in one line. The polite 您 (nín, you, polite) stays; 尊敬的 (zūnjìng de, dear, respected) goes, because on WeChat it reads as a letter pasted into a chat window.
One purpose, short lines. One message, one thing to do: the contract is in your inbox, please look at the price clause by 10 October. If there is a second topic, it gets its own message later. Each line carries one point, so the reader can answer the line, not the paragraph.
No classical closing. End with 谢谢 (xièxie, thank you). The checker shows why: add 此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect) to the end of Lumen's WeChat and its index rises from 64 to 72, out of the WeChat band of 42 to 68 and into the email band. The formula does not make a WeChat more respectful; it makes it the wrong shape.
Self-studyVoice messages, and when the email still matters3 min▶
WeChat makes voice messages easy, and many people use them all day with colleagues. To a partner's manager, a common professional practice is to send text unless they have sent you voice messages first or asked for one: text can be read in a meeting, searched later and forwarded, and a voice note can do none of those. This is practice reported by people who work this way, not a documented rule, and some teams simply prefer voice. Follow the partner's lead.
The WeChat does not replace the email. The email carries the contract, the version and the deadline in a form both companies can file. The WeChat points at it. If the WeChat starts to carry the content, the price, the clause wording, the deadline, it has become an unfiled email, and that is usually the moment to move back to email.
Subject lines and attachments
4 min liveBefore Manager Wang reads a word of the email, he sees two lines: the subject and the attachment's file name. A subject line that names the item and the date, and a file name readable on both sides of the partnership, are what let him find the right contract a month later among a dozen others. This, too, is common practice rather than a rule, and it is the cheapest improvement on the page.
LiveA subject line, built in four parts2 min▶
Write it as four short parts: who it is from, 鲁门物流 (Lǔmén Wùliú, Lumen Logistics); what it is, 合作合同草稿 (hézuò hétong cǎogǎo, draft partnership contract); which version, 第2版 (dì èr bǎn, version 2); and what to do by when, 请于10月10日前审阅 (qǐng yú shí yuè shí rì qián shěnyuè, please review by 10 October). Many writers put the company in 【】 brackets at the front so it sorts and stands out in an inbox; that is a habit, not a rule.
Dates in subject lines and file names are safest as numbers, month before day, as Chinese writes them: 10月10日 (shí yuè shí rì, 10 October). In a file name, the compact form 20261003 sorts correctly in any folder.
Self-studyFile names in Chinese and English2 min▶
A contract between a Singapore company and a Shanghai one is opened by people on both sides, some of whom read only one of the two languages, and by systems that sometimes mangle Chinese characters in file names. A common practice in cross-border work is a file name with both halves: the Chinese description, the English description, the version and the date, joined by underscores.
| Part | Example |
|---|---|
| Chinese description | 鲁门物流合作合同草稿 (Lǔmén Wùliú hézuò hétong cǎogǎo, Lumen Logistics draft partnership contract) |
| English description | Lumen_Partnership_Contract_Draft |
| Version and date | v2_20261003 |
| Joined | the Chinese half, then _Lumen_Partnership_Contract_Draft_v2_20261003.pdf |
If the English half alone survives a system that drops the characters, the file is still findable. If the partner renames it on their side, the version and date still tell you which one they mean.
Three files called contract. A constructed case. Lumen's first contract email went out with the subject 合同 (hétong, contract) and an attachment named the same. Manager Wang's office was handling three partner contracts that week, and his assistant forwarded the wrong one to legal. Nothing was signed in error, but a week went on untangling it. The resend used the four-part subject line and the two-language file name, and was the only version anyone needed to ask about again.
The contract email, and the WeChat that announces it
★ 22 min · everyone writesFive steps. You write the purpose line first, then Lumen's formal email carrying the draft contract, then the short WeChat that tells Manager Wang it has arrived. Each goes through the formality checker from session 1, set to its own channel. The checker is a printed list of 43 markers running in this page; the numbers in the steps are what it computes on the versions printed here, and it cannot judge grammar or meaning.
Write the purpose line first. Before the frame, decide the one sentence the email exists to say. If you cannot say it in one line in English, the Chinese will not be clearer.
Build the email around it. Add the five blocks: salutation, greeting, purpose, attachment and help, closing. The pinyin and English sit beside each line for you; the full translation is underneath.
Write the WeChat that announces it. Keep the title and 您 (nín, you, polite), drop the frame, one point per line, end with 谢谢 (xièxie, thank you).
Check both, each against its own channel. The checker opens with a sample draft loaded. Replace it with your email, typing the Chinese only, choose "Formal email to a partner company" and press check; then do the same with your WeChat and "WeChat to a partner's manager you have met". Then try the trap: paste your email in with the WeChat channel chosen, and watch it report too stiff.
Add the subject line and the file name, then note what moved. The checker does not read these two lines, so check them against the four parts from Part 3 by eye.
Send the email first, then the WeChat. The WeChat points at something that already exists. Sent the other way round, it asks Manager Wang to look for an email that is not there yet, and the second message he receives from you is an apology.
Before session 3
30 min- Rebuild one real email you sent or received in Chinese into the five blocks. Mark which block was missing or out of order, and check the result in the email band.
- Write its WeChat. Turn the same email into a WeChat of three or four short lines with the title first and 谢谢 (xièxie, thank you) last, and check it in the WeChat band.
- Fix three subject lines. Take three subject lines from your own inbox and rewrite each with the four parts: sender, item, version, and what to do by when.
- Collect closings. From five formal emails you have received, note which used 此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect) and which did not. Session 3 takes the checker apart and shows exactly how much a single closing moves the number.
Three questions
Clear all three and session 2 gets stamped in your passport.
1 · What are the five blocks of a formal business email, in order?
Salutation, greeting, purpose, attachment and help, closing. The purpose comes first in the body because the reader decides in the first line whether to act now. The shape is common practice, not a published rule.
2 · Why is 此致 敬礼 (cǐzhì jìnglǐ, with respect) called a convention on this page?
It is a widely followed habit, not a rule. The checker shows the same thing from its side: Lumen's email sits in the email band at 84 with the formula and at 78 without it.
3 · Which of these does not belong in a business WeChat to a partner's manager?
A WeChat keeps the title and the polite 您 (nín, you, polite) and drops the frame. The formula does not add respect there; it makes the message the wrong shape for the channel.
What this session teaches, and where it came from
Every fact on this page, and its verification tier, is recorded in the course's source map.
Session 2 cheat sheet · pin this
Tonight you used the checker as a tool. Session 3 opens it: one meeting confirmation written five ways, every marker and weight printed, and the reason the most polished version scores worst. You will see exactly why one formula moved the WeChat across its band.