Writing letters

The other day my spanish teacher asked us to write a post card.I was wondering how would you address people in a formal business letter, greetings and salutations.

In English we often use the "Dear..." and end the letter with "Sincerely..." but in Spanish there is more variation depending on how formal you wish to be.

The equivalent of "Dear" is querido or querida (masculine or faminine) .In Spanish, it is more common to follow the greeting with a colon rather than the comma usually used in English.

Let's see the format of a  friendly letter in spanish.First, start with one of these opening salutations: Querido(a) Amigo(a) (Dear Friend); or Queridísimo (a) (Dearest) or Amor de mi vida (My love).

Next, begin the body of the letter with a phrase asking about one’s family - Espero que todos se encuentren bien (I hope everyone is well).

Then, write anything you want in the rest of the body of the letter just as in English.

Use a final salutation like - Muchos saludos para todos (Say hello to everyone).

Finally, close your letter with a phrase like - Con todo cariño (Affectionately…) followed by your signature.

Other ways to close an informal letter are

Un abrazo (literally, a hug)
Un fuerte abrazo (literally, a strong hug)
Cariñosos saludos (roughly, kind regards)
Afectuosamente (affectionately)

Spanish letters in general tend to be more cordial so use more flowery language and express a lot of emotion.

For a business letter use estimado instead of querido.

To start your greeting to a person you already know by name use: Estimado Señor José or Estimada Señora Miguel.

If you don’t know the person by name, you can simply write: Muy Señor mío, Muy Señora mía.
Su Excelencia (Your excellence: to some high rank personnel) or Estimado Señor / Estimada Señora which is less formal.

The most common ending, used in much the same way as "sincerely" in English, is atentamente.

That can also be expanded to le saluda atentamente or les saluda atentamente, depending on whether you're writing to one or to more persons, respectively. A more casual ending that can be used in business letters is cordialmente.