20 Chunks for Emails That Don't Sound Like a Robot Wrote Them

Here's an experiment. Open your sent folder and find your last five work emails in English. Do they all begin with "Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to you in order to..."? Do they end with "Thanking you in advance for your kind cooperation"? Do they sound, in short, like they were composed in 1987 by a fax machine with anxiety?

If yes, welcome, and please know this is not your fault. Somewhere along the way, a textbook taught you "formal email English," and that textbook was preserving a museum. Meanwhile, actual working English drifted somewhere friendlier: still professional, still polite, but human. The result is that many learners write emails that are technically flawless and tonally strange, like showing up to a video call in a tuxedo.

I've been teaching English for over five years, and email is where my students most often ask the real question: not "is this correct?" but "is this what people actually write?" So today, the answer: twenty chunks, five groups, one for each part of an email, all of them pulled from how colleagues genuinely write to each other in 2026. Learn these whole, and your emails will take half the time and read twice as warm. Both of those numbers are the point.

01 · The Big Idea

The Big Idea

Same principle that runs this whole blog, now applied to your inbox:

This is why native speakers fire off a well-toned email in ninety seconds: they're not composing, they're clicking prefabricated pieces together and typing the 20% that's actually new information. It's also why tone is so hard to build word by word: politeness in English lives inside fixed phrases (would you mind, just a quick note, when you get a chance), and if you construct sentences freshly from grammar, you get correctness without the upholstery. The chunks ARE the upholstery.

One tuning note before the list: these chunks sit in the broad professional middle, right for colleagues, clients you know, and most workplace situations. For a first email to a stranger or something legal, dress them up slightly; for your teammate of five years, half of them can relax into even shorter forms. Middle first. The middle covers 80% of your inbox.

02 · Group 1: Openers (After "Hi Anna,")

Group 1: Openers (After "Hi Anna,")

The first line's only job is to be brief and human before business starts.

• I hope you're doing well. – The standard warm opener. Fine, expected, invisible. Its shorter cousin Hope all's well works for people you email often.
• Thanks for getting back to me. – When replying to a reply. Instantly warmer than launching straight into content.
• Great to see you yesterday. / Good talking to you earlier. – The callback opener. If you had any contact recently, referencing it beats any generic greeting.
• Just a quick note to... – Opener and purpose in one move: "Just a quick note to confirm Friday works." Signals brevity, which every reader on Earth appreciates.

The chunk to retire: "I hope this email finds you well." It's not wrong, it's just become the official uniform of automated messages, and you're not one.

03 · Group 2: Saying Why You're Writing

Group 2: Saying Why You're Writing

State the purpose in line one or two. Busy readers skim; these chunks are the handles they grab.

• I'm writing to... – The clean classic: "I'm writing to confirm the schedule." Slightly formal, always safe.
• I wanted to follow up on... – The polite nudge machine: "I wanted to follow up on my last email about the invoice." Infinitely reusable, zero aggression.
• Just checking in on... – The follow-up's friendlier sibling, perfect for second reminders: "Just checking in on this one." (British and American offices alike run on this phrase.)
• Quick question: – Two words, a colon, the question. For simple asks, this beats a paragraph of throat-clearing every time, and recipients love you for it.

04 · Group 3: Asking for Things (Where Politeness Lives or Dies)

Group 3: Asking for Things (Where Politeness Lives or Dies)

Requests are the highest-stakes sentences in any email. Too blunt reads rude; too padded reads unsure. These four calibrate it for you.

• Could you...? – The workhorse: "Could you send me the final version?" Polite, direct, correct for 90% of requests. (Note: can you is fine among close colleagues; could is the safe default.)
• Would you mind + -ing...? – One level softer, for bigger asks: "Would you mind checking the numbers before Friday?" Careful with the reply, though: "Would you mind..." is answered with "Not at all," because you're literally asking about minding.
• When you get a chance, ... – The pressure-release valve: "When you get a chance, could you take a look?" Signals "not urgent" and makes any request feel lighter. Its formal twin: at your convenience.
• It would be great if you could... – For requests that are really gentle instructions: "It would be great if you could send this by Thursday." Deadline delivered, nobody bruised.

05 · Group 4: Delivering Information (Good, Neutral, and Bad)

Group 4: Delivering Information (Good, Neutral, and Bad)

• Just to let you know, ... – The universal update chunk: "Just to let you know, the meeting's moved to 3." Neutral, friendly, done.
• I've attached... – The modern attachment line: "I've attached the report." (The museum piece "Please find attached herewith" can finally rest. Please find attached alone is fine if you like it, but I've attached is what colleagues write.)
• I'm afraid... – The essential bad-news softener: "I'm afraid Thursday doesn't work for me." Two words of cushioning that turn a refusal into a regret. Its sibling for mistakes: Apologies for the delay / the confusion. One apology, clearly stated, then move to the solution; three paragraphs of sorry helps nobody.
• Just a heads-up: – The friendly warning: "Just a heads-up: the client's seen the old version." Informal but broadly office-safe, and there's no formal chunk that does this job as well.

06 · Group 5: Closing (Landing the Plane)

Group 5: Closing (Landing the Plane)

• Let me know if you have any questions. – The standard runway. Also in the "anything else" family: Let me know if you need anything else. Warm, open, finished.
• Looking forward to hearing from you. – When you need a reply. Note the -ing after to; "looking forward to hear" is one of the most common email errors in existence, and you're now permanently vaccinated.
• Thanks in advance! – Efficient gratitude for requests. (Some people find it slightly presumptuous; if in doubt, Thanks so much offends no one alive.)
• Best, / Best regards, / Thanks, – The sign-off trio, informal to formal-ish, covering every workplace situation. "Yours faithfully" still exists, but only for letters to strangers whose names you don't know, a situation that now occurs roughly once per decade.

07 · How to Learn These (The Inbox Method)

How to Learn These (The Inbox Method)

Twenty chunks, but here's the good news: you don't need the five-day routine this time, because your inbox IS the practice environment, and it arrives daily whether you like it or not. So the method is simpler. Today, pick one real email you need to write, and assemble it entirely from this post: one opener, one purpose chunk, your actual content, one closer. Notice how little original composition was required; that ratio is the entire secret of fast, natural email.

Then, for a week, upgrade one chunk per email. Old habit says "Please find attached herewith"; new habit says I've attached. Each swap is one repetition, in real context, with real stakes, which is the stickiest kind of practice there is. And yes, put the ones you keep forgetting into your spaced review with the rest of your chunks; an email phrase is a collocation with a salary.

08 · Common Mistakes

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: "Looking forward to hear from you." After looking forward to, always -ing: hearing. The to is a preposition here, the same trap as be used to. Fixed once, fixed forever.

Mistake 2: Museum formality with modern colleagues. "Dear Sir, I kindly request your esteemed assistance" to Dave from accounting. Match the register to the relationship; the middle chunks above ARE the match for almost everyone.

Mistake 3: Burying the point. Three paragraphs of context, then the actual question in line eleven. Purpose chunk first (I'm writing to... / Quick question:), context after, and your reply rate will visibly improve.

Mistake 4: Translating politeness from your language. Every language pads requests differently; word-for-word imports come out either icy or baroque in English. The chunks are pre-padded. Trust them, whole.

09 · Try This Today

Try This Today

Draft this email, out loud or on paper, using only chunks from this post: you need a colleague to review a document by Friday, they're busy, and you're also attaching the file. (One possible skeleton: hope-you're-well, quick note, I've attached, would you mind, when you get a chance is optional given the deadline, thanks so much, Best.) Ninety seconds. Compare it with what 1987-you would have produced, and how long that would have taken.

Then send a real one. Today's inbox will supply the opportunity within the hour. It always does.

10 · Retire the Fax Machine

Retire the Fax Machine

Back to your sent folder, and the anxious fax machine that's been ghostwriting for you. It served honourably, and it can stand down now. Not because formality is dead, but because tone in English was never really about formality. It was about familiarity: writing the phrases that readers recognize as how colleagues actually talk to each other.

Twenty chunks. One inbox that practises you daily. Within a month, the assembling becomes invisible, the tuxedo goes back in the wardrobe, and your emails start sounding like the thing they always should have been: you, in English, in a bit of a hurry, being pleasant about it.

WordCat teaches functional chunks like these inside real dialogues and passages at your level, spaced until they show up on their own, even at 9am on a Monday. Try it at wordcat.app.

Keep reading:

• Lexical Chunks for Small Talk: Sound Natural at Work