英文商务电子邮件格式（通用7篇）
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In the internet era, e-commerce performs crucial roles in social and economic development, and may be defi ned as a special platform providing opportunities to exchange products, services and information online, leading to the innovation of trade, which is extremely different with the traditional type (Connerty 2001) .
The development of advanced transaction online has popularized all over the world.This large global market promotes the improvements of different small business ranging from general merchandise to household applications.These e-customers are immersed into realistic network world filled with products and services.However, many customers and suppliers are concerned about the slaw speed of improvement of e-commerce in their countries, such as China.
Some authors (Avila and Boncanoska 1998, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2002) argued that e-commerce has been developed and applied in most of countries, especially the developing countries.It could affect the suppliers’motivation, the living of customers and the job opportunities in society.A growing number of authors prefer to research into the future of Chinese e-commerce (Ernst and He 2000) , not only in terms of its benefi ts on local people, but also in terms of its factors impeded the development of e-commerce in China.In Zhu’s (2000) and Zhang’s (2003) article, they found that this development could be determined by several factors, such as economy, administration as well as the standard level of information technology.However, the most important limitation in e-commerce, which is so valuable especially when finding the appropriate solutions, is likely to be neglect by them.
Hence, the overall aim of research is to compare these three different limitations and find out the main ones.The research is divided into three parts.Firstly, it will identify the global e-commerce development, secondly, the problem faced by Chinese e-commerce and importance of different limitations to e-commerce developmen in China.Finally, according to the comparison for which two are most essential factors, the most important limitations are presented and discussed.
2. E-commerce
2.1. Development of Global E-commerce
E-commerce is a kind of new platform describing the processes of buying and selling and the transaction of products, services and information via network circumstance, such as Internet (Turban1999) .It means that customers could find and get the goods provided by suppliers online.According to Boncanoska (Avila and Boncanoska 1998) , owing to the development of Interne technology, the new concept of commerce has been developed and popularized all over the world over the decades, due to the fact tha an increasingly number of people have accessed to the Internet.The amount of users of e-commerce is being increased dramatically by200%from 2000 to 2006 (ibid) .A rising number of countries had joined into the innovation of commerce world by the year of 2005as shown in Figure 1.
From the fi gure, it indicates that until 2005, the Western Europe and North America has been the main markets of this new model commerce, and other areas occupy the market quotient averagely, which means that the degrees of developments of e-commerce in different areas are being developed at the same time.The volume of global business online increased from 210 billion in 2008 to 610billion in 2012 (Turban 1999) .
2.2. Effects of E-commerce in Developing countries
During the 1990s, the process of e-commerce has been improved in the majority of developing countries.The development of infrastructure in these countries promotes the changes of local economy environment, leading to alter the traditional types of commerce (Efendioglu, Yip and Murray 1998) .The e-commerce has played an essential role in these changes of society.There are a signifi cant number of benefi ts from e-commerce (Turban 1999) , as depict in Table 1.
It is shown that the e-commerce could bring positive infl uences on organizations, customers and local society.It may enable enterprises to significantly expand their marketplace to not only national but also international market, as well as help customers get the products with les costs anytime.While the most important one is that the development of local e-commerce reduces the proportion of unemployment via supporting these small businesses.
3. E-commerce in China
3.1. The Current Situation
Chinese e-commerce is different from the smooth and real-time transaction in other countries with advanced Internet.The special e-transaction pattern, called One-stop on-line shop with real-time transaction, is rarely existed in Chinese e-commerce market (Li2006) .It means that Chinese e-customers should book the products or services online and get them off-line.In China, the growing number of Internet users has provided an opportunity for e-commerce development.According to Buhalis (2006) , the e-commerce websites increased from 1500 in 1997 to 590 thousand in 2003.Nowadays, two e-commercial websites are being registered every day in China.Some of them have achieved success.For example, “Taobao”, as one of the largest e-commerce transaction platform in Asia, has exceeded eBay and Amazon because of its successful strategies (Yang and Liu2009, Martinsons 2002) .
3.2. The Future of E-commerce
The number of e-customers in China is predicted to exceed 40million by the end of 2012 (Ernst and He 2000) .Some researchers believe that the e-commerce will be in the dominant position of Chinese trade in the next decades.However, the flourishing e-commerce market in China does not mean there cannot be problems.Ernst (2000) doubted that the e-commerce in China, as one of the largest nations with the richer resources, means and the motivation, is lagging far behind other countries in terms of the size and scope of the e-commerce marketing.At present, many customers, especially those over the age of 45, prefer the traditional trade on the face-to-face basis, due to a number of limitations effected on the development of e-commerce in China.Efendioglu (Efendioglu 2004) found that culture issues, such as‘socializing effect of commerce’and‘attitudes toward debt’are likely to be determined to be the impediments to Chinese e-commerce.
3.3. Limitations
Zhu (Zhu 2000) showed that the success of e-commerce in China relies on nine different factors, and he had also listed them in his report, such as lack of infrastructure, lack of trust, lack of information technology standard.The development will be significantly affected by three main aspects:the economy, administration and information technology (Zhang 2003) , which will be describe in the following sections.
3.3.1. The Economic Aspect
The economy is one of the main aspects in limitations of e-commerce in China, Zhang) , owing to the fact that economy level is the foundation of success of every introduction.Meanwhile, Zhang (2003) found that Chinese economy development level is comparatively very weak.When comparing with the GPD per capita of those developed countries or regions (as shown in Table 2) , Chinese whole development remains far laggard.
The table indicates the GDP per capita in China is far lower than those in other countries (regions) , although it had increased from520 dollars in 1995 to 789 dollars in 1999.According to Zhu (Zhu2000) , the lack of high economy level may weaken the motivation of businessmen’s investment motivation, which also supports the living environment of Chinese e-commerce.
3.3.2. The Administration Aspect
Nowadays, there is a lack of laws and regulatory framework related to the security of e-commerce in China (Zhu 2000) .To compare with the rules in other countries, where the various fi nancial industries are highly compounded, the rule of e-commerce in China is quite different, because those fi nancial service companies could only provide service of banking, insurance or securities, which significantly constricts their future on ment of commerce.Zhang (Zhang 2003) thought that the leak of laws in China risks the potential risk of transaction online (e.g.hackers, crackers and fi nancial crimes) , which resulted in the lack of trust of e-customers, as the reliability of e-commerce.This series of problems about the security or safety pose the greater challenges to the development of e-commerce in China.
3.3.3. The Technological Aspect
Due to a rising number of Internet users, the network environment and information technology level are related with the customers and suppliers.More enterprises began to issue information of products based on the Internet.Zhu (2000) thought that the lack of the information technology standard could not directly impede the development of e-commerce in China, but the majority of e-commerce providers have to work on the platform with this standard.The lower level of information is likely to present many mistakes in the application, which are easily attacked by hackers or organizations who want to get unearned benefi ts from these errors.On the other hand, those e-commerce sites designed only in Chinese could impede the data exchange or multinational transactions (Zhang2003, Zhu 2000) .Hence, the better way to promote the growth of e-commerce in China is to set up a universal standard of information technology and to solve the language issue.
4. Methodology
Mass of data and useful information related to e-commerce development has been presented in different ways, academic journals, books and websites.This range of literature source will be used in this report.The careful analysis of its history and development could contribute to finding out the potential development trend in other countries, especially in China.In the process of analyzing current situation of e-commerce in China, we may fi nd several limitations and factors of local e-commerce.
5. Results
According to Zhang (2003) , three different factors of e-commerce (administration, economy and information technology) will bring some negative influences on the development of Chinese e-commerce on distinct aspects, such as safety, reliability motivation, living environment, security and stability, which are shown in the Figure
From the picture, it is shown that economy developmen may just change the living environment of e-commerce in China and the businessmen’s investment motivation.The improvemen of administration will effect on the safety of e-transaction and reliability of the public, especially the customers.However, the stable improvement and information security of local e-commerce rely on the standard level of information technology directly and significantly.On the other hand, Zhu (2000) found that all of the effects are likely to play different roles in the development of local e-commerce.For example, the most important factor is the e-transaction safety or information security which is paid more attention by both of the customers and suppliers, because it is no only related to their financial benefits, but also easy to reduce the reliability of e-commerce, trust of the customers and investmen motivation of supplier significantly.The stability of e-commerce application is more essential than the living environment.Hence the result of this research is that the administration and information technology are more likely to impede the future of Chinese e-commerce than economy.Due to the low standard level of information technology, the e-commerce system may be unstable and easy to be attacked by hackers, leading to the loss of valuable data of e-transaction, even the fi nancial loss, which is likely to be similarly resulted from the defi ciency of supervision and the leaks of the laws.Meanwhile, owing to the fact that the frequency of e-business deal and its fi nancial amount is being increased, the trade security and personal information protection are concerned by these members in the transaction online.While the living environmen resulted from economy is one of the conditions for local e-commerce it is even more important how to increase the customers’trust and businessmen’s motivation resulted from the e-commerce security.
6. Discussion
The project aims at finding out the most essential limitations for Chinese e-commerce via the analysis of its development trend.I has been argued that e-commerce in China with rich resources is stil lagging far behind other countries in terms of its market (Ernst and He, 2000) .On the other hand, it is also argued that infrastructure and socio-economy influence the e-commerce development in China (Efendioglu, 2004) .However, my result is that the success of Chinese e-commerce may mainly rely on the administration and information technology (IT) standard, because the e-commerce security is related to the businessmen’s investment motivation and the trust of the customers, which constitute the living environmen of e-commerce.Apparently, leaks of e-commerce regular and the unstable e-commerce systems are more likely to be attacked by hackers or those who expect to get the unearned benefi ts, leading the reduction of e-commerce security of information and trade resulted in damage of the trusts of e-customers and suppliers.
Although it is found that both of administration and IT may be the decisive limitation of Chinese e-commerce in the research there could not be impossible limitations.Because, the economy administration and IT are mainly studied in this project, other factors and the interactions between different factors are more likely to be neglected.
A clear understanding of the main limitations of Chinese e-commerce will be helpful, especially when improving its efficiency.To minimise these limitations, the effects of each limitation and their relationships should be synthetically considered before solutions proposed.Meanwhile, governments need to identify and control changes of e-commerce market as well as legislate against fi nancial crimes and security problems.
7. Conclusion
The administration and information technology standard are found to be the most essential limitations affected on the development of e-commerce in China.However, Many other limitations and their relationships may be neglected by the research They have been studied and their possible solutions are proposed.
To resolve these problems, it is suggested that the complex interactions between limitations need to be taken into account and their importance needs to be also put in order.They may enable al confused arguments about limitations to be eliminated.Governments and scientists should also propose some solutions to develop Chinese e-commerce, such as issuing the related laws to keep the security of information and trade and developing the small e-commerce systems with low costs and easy vindicating processes.After these remedies it is fi rmly believed that Chinese e-commerce might be improved dramatically, although there could be still several problems.
This result should be put into practical use and evaluated.In the future research, the appropriate solution to improve the level of information technology standard and local administration should also be focused.
Acknowledgment:Thank you Hilary Thompson tutor for this article guidance and help.
Zhang Mengting at present in the UK Heriot-Watt University reading.
参考文献
[1]Avila, A.&V.Boncanoska.1998.Promoting e-Commerce in Developing Countries.28.Internet Governance and Policy Discussion Papers
[2]Connerty, A.[2001]The internet era:the development of electronic commerce in China - and a need for global dispute resolution processes Amicus Curiae, 2001, 5
[3]Efendioglu, A.M.[2004]Chinese culture and e-commerce:an exploratory study.Interacting with Computers, 16, 7
[4]Efendioglu, A.M., V.F.Yip&W.L.Murray.1998. E-COMMERCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES:ISSUES AND INFLUENCES 8.University of San Francisco
[5]Ernst, D.&J.He.2000.The Future of E-Commerce in China the East-West Center
[6]Li, L.[2006]E-Commerce in China:The case of travel.International Journal of Information Management, 26, 13
[7]Martinsons, M.G.[2002]Electronic commerce in China:emerging success stories.Information& Management, 39, 9
[8]Turban, E.1999.Electronic commerce:a managerial perspective.Upper Saddle River, N.J.;Harlow Boston, Mass;London: Prentice Hall;Pearson Prentice Hall
[9]United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.2002.E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002, 275.New York and Geneva
[10]Yang, L.& X.Liu [2009].Analysis on the Successful Strategies of Taobao’s E-Commerce
具体来说，英文商务电子邮件的主体段应具备两大特征：统一性和连贯性。统一性包括如下三点：①主体段中的每一段应围绕一个要点展开叙述；②每一段的内容必须完整，独立成体；③主体段的不同要点之间应存在内在的统一性，围绕同一个大主题展开叙述。连贯性是指主体段中的段与段之间以及句与句之间应该连贯、顺畅。下面我们通过相应的案例来阐述和分析这两大特征。
统一性
我们通过下面的案例来分析如何实现英文商务电子邮件主体段的统一性。
案例1
The main line of our business is air-conditioners export. Would you please give me the name of your bank? Illustrated catalogues and pricelists will be airmailed at your request.
分析
上述这段话为一封商务电子邮件的主体段。邮件撰写人为某外贸公司的业务员，写这封邮件的主要目的是想和对方公司建立业务联系。
这一主体段存在一个很突出的问题：将三个不同的要点堆在了一个段落中，而且这三个要点之间没有统一的主题，导致收件人读起来很费解。如上文所述，邮件主体段的正确写法是每一段只包含一个要点，且不同的要点之间应存在内在的联系，以实现内容上的统一。就上述这一主体段而言，虽然三个句子在阐述不同的要点，但实际上三者之间存在一个内在的联系，即与对方公司建立业务联系。因此，我们可以将上述的内容略作扩展，通过添加适当的语句来实现不同要点之间的统一性。我们来看修改后的邮件主体段。
修改后的主体段
Our bank has informed us that you need an air-conditioner supplier. As our main line is exporting air-conditioners, we cordially propose that we become partners.
If you agree, please send us your bank’s name so we can better know your company.
We will send you our illustrated catalogue and pricelist as soon as we receive your enquiry.
连贯性
我们同样通过一个案例来分析如何实现英文商务电子邮件主体段的连贯性。
案例2
I’m very glad to inform you that the 75 hopper railway cars supplied by your company are estimated to arrive at Destination Puerto Ordaz in December. So may I have the pleasure to invite you to our company located at Puerto Ordaz, Estado Bolivar? We will hold a celebration ritual of 75 hopper railway cars. In the past two years, we had a very satisfying cooperation, and we look forward to developing future business with you. We hope you could come to Puerto Ordaz on December 3rd.
分析
上述这段话为一封电子邮件的主体段，邮件撰写人为某外企的客户经理。他写这封邮件的目的是邀请对方参加庆祝典礼。
这一主体段主要存在两大问题：①将所有的内容用一个段落阐述，增加了收件人阅读和理解的难度。②句与句之间不够连贯、顺畅。该主体段首先说明火车车厢预计于12月到达目的地，接着便向对方提出邀请，然后才说明邀请的理由。这三个要点之间的逻辑关系没有把握好，导致语义不是很连贯。那么，如何在写作主体段时做到行文连贯呢？我们可以从确保语义连贯、使用替代词和连接词以及省略等方面多下工夫。下面我们就针对这几个方面一一分析。
1. 确保语义连贯
语义连贯指的是句与句之间以及段与段之间应该衔接紧密、逻辑清晰。也就是说，后文应该围绕前文展开叙述，后文内容可以在前文内容中找到线索，这样收件人读起来才不会有跳跃感和突兀感。例如上述案例中的第二句话与第一句话之间的语义就不连贯，让人读起来感觉有点莫名其妙：第一句话并不是第二句话的原因，何来的“so”呢？到底为什么要向对方提出邀请呢？读到下文才明白，原来邀请的原因是“We will hold a celebration ritual of 75 hopper railway cars”。大家需要明白的是，一封正式的商务电子邮件不是悬疑小说，不应该让收件人带着疑问去读下文。就案例2而言，如果将案例中的第二句话和第三句话中想表达的内容调换一下顺序，语义就会顺畅很多：“We are planning to hold a celebration ceremony for the arrival of the 75 hopper railway cars in our company in Puerto Ordaz, Estado Bolivar on Dec. 3rd, 2011. Therefore, we would like to invite you to attend this ceremony on that day.”
2. 使用替代词
英文写作切忌重复，英文商务电子邮件也是如此。为了确保文章语意连贯、表达简洁，英文中常用it、one、ones、that、those等替代词来替代上文已经出现过的名词。我们先来看一封邮件中的主体段。
Thank you for the copy of your new book, Guide to Business Writing, which you sent me last week.
The book turns out to be just the book I needed! The book is full of useful information and I’m sure I will be consulting the book a lot in the future when I have to write letters and reports in English.
这一段的内容中重复出现了the book，致使句与句之间的衔接非常别扭，读起来有断断续续的感觉。因为第一段中已经提到book，所以下文中出现的the book完全可以用it来替代，这样行文就会顺畅得多。
但同时要强调的一点是，我们在撰写邮件时，尽量不要在邮件的开头部分出现he、she、it、this等代词。因为收件人的思路可能与你的思路不同，代词太多会让他们感到很迷惑。例如笔者曾见过这样的邮件开头：“I know you want to talk about it, but I am tied up in meetings all day.”这句话中的it出现在开头，指代不明，容易让人困惑，因此作者应将it所指代的具体内容表述出来，例如：“I know you want to talk about the proposal, but I am tied up in meetings all day.”
3. 使用连接词
使用连接词也是增强句与句之间以及段与段之间连贯性的常用方法。这些连接词主要包括副词、连词、介词短语等。以下为一些常用的连接词。
◆ 表递进：in addition、moreover、what’s more、besides、also等；
◆ 表转折：although、nevertheless、however等；
◆ 表对比：in contrast、on the contrary等；
◆ 表强调：above all、especially、most importantly等；
◆ 表举例：for example、for instance等；
◆ 表结果：as a result、because of this、for this reason、hence、therefore等；
◆ 表总结：to sum up、finally、in a word等；
◆ 表时间：at present、in the future、meanwhile、recently、shortly、when等。
4. 省略
上文提到，撰写邮件时应尽量避免重复。除了可以使用代词外，省略也是避免重复的重要方式。例如，如果两个并列的谓语动词拥有相同的宾语，为了避免重复，要省略掉其中一个宾语。我们一起来对比下面两个句子。
1.Please sign one copy of the Sales Confirmation and return this copy for our file.
2.Please sign and return one copy of the Sales Confirmation for our file.
很显然，第二个句子比第一个读起来更为连贯、简练。
通过对上述四种方式的介绍，相信读者已经对如何增强段落连贯性有所了解。下面笔者提供上述案例2的修改版本，以供读者参考。
修改后的主体段
We are very pleased to inform you that the 75 hopper railway cars supplied by your company are estimated to arrive at the destination, Puerto Ordaz, in December. We are planning to hold a celebration ceremony for the arrival of the 75 hopper railway cars in our company in Puerto Ordaz, Estado Bolivar on Dec. 3rd, 2011. Therefore, we would like to invite you to attend this ceremony on that day.
We consider your participation in this ceremony to be vital, as you are one of our major suppliers. Over the past two years, we have enjoyed a very satisfactory cooperation, and we sincerely wish to develop further business with you.
We look forward to seeing you in Puerto Ordaz on Dec. 3rd.
Several weeks after a young man had been hired, he was called into the personnel director’s office.
“What is the meaning of this?” the director asked. “When you applied for the job, you told us you had five years’ experience. Now we discover this is the first job you ever held.”
dear sir or madam，
nice to contact you !we are glad to know your name and address on the internet . here writing you with expectation of establishing business relationship . now we take this opportunity to introduce our company. our company was founded in (year). we have a very large international business with lots of countries.we are mainly produce all kinds of (product). if something is attracting ，please let us know， then we should send you the price sheet. after you confirm the price ，the samples also can be dispathed to you for thepurpose of examining the quality.hope our products meet your market. so that we can start our bbusiness relationship for mutual benefit. thanking you in advance and looking forward to having your kind views on our business cooperation proposal. your prompt reply would be highly appreciated waiting for your kindly reply.
I’m very glad that you’ll come to China as an exchange student. I know it isn’t easy to learn Chinese, but I have some ideas that may help.
Firstly, it’s very important to listen to the teacher carefully in class and take some notes so that you can go over your lessons later. Secondly, try to catch every chance to practice speaking, both in and out of class. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Then try to listen and read more in Chinese.
What’s more, you’d better plan your time well and study it very often every day. Above all, you should be confident in yourself and don’t give up whenever you meet with difficulty. I’m sure you will succeed through your hard work.
__X
写过/使用过外贸合同的人都知道，外贸合同一般分为三个部分。一是首部（也叫头部head），二是body，即主体，三、结尾——end。英文商务合同和其他的外贸函电格式大致可以这样分。
下面简单介绍一下英文商务合同首部一般包括以下几点内容：
1.英文商务合同的名称。
合同的英文一般写作Contract，如果是正本则在右上方注明Original，副本则注明Copy。比如购买合同Purchase Contract，销售合同Sale Contract，租赁合同Lease Contract，运输合同Shipping Contract，等等。
2.英文商务合同的编号。
通常合同的编号是由年份，公司代码，部门代号等构成的。比如03CMEC, DA006，这个编号中03指03年；CMEC是China Machinery Export Company（中国机械出口公司）公司的缩写；DA是Depart A，A部；006指第六份文件。那么合起来就是中国机械出口公司A部03年第六份合同。
3.该商务合同的签约日期。
英语的日期大家都知道怎么表示，在这里需要注意的是，通常美国月份在前，而英国日期在前。月份可以用缩写，但要用英语大写表示。比如：MAR.2, 1992。从这个日期我们就可以看出这份合同是与美国人签的。
4.签约地点。
5.买卖双方的名称、地址和联系方式。
通常在合同的开始就要注明甲方和乙方。以下提供一些职位的名称供大家参考：董事长 President / Chairman；
董事会 board of director；
经理 CEO / general manager；
部门经理 department manager；
有限公司 Corporation.Ltd./ Company.Ltd.；
分公司 Branch；
子公司 Subsidiary；
6.序言（Preface）
在英文商务合同的甲方乙方下面我们通常会有一些对合同的描述，比如：This contract is signed by and between the Buyer and the Seller, according to the terms and conditions stipulated below.这份合同是买卖双方之间根据以下条款而签定的。在这方面，英文商务合同跟中文合同一样，都是固定的千篇一律的话。
关键词：商务英语,语言特点,语法,词汇,句法
1 Definition of Business English
With the rapid development of economic globalization, Business English has been playing an increasingly important role in the reform of China's national economy.Business English is a branch of the English language system.It refers to the Special English which serves for the international business routines.Business English is a special term to English by non-English speaking countries for international trade.To give it a more detailed definition, business English includes Ordinary Business English and Specialized Business English.Ordinary English covers a variety of English books, magazines, newspapers and so on.The latter includes documents, laws, regulations, letters, professional theory and practice of business activities.
2 Characteristics of Business English
2.1 More Use of the Present Tense
The present tense is used more frequently than other tenses in business English, so as to emphasize a practical, principled and effective model.Because present tense is often used when represents objective truth and general provisions, other tenses are used as compliment when necessary.For instance,
1) “Please advise us when the goods are ready for shipments.”
2) “Market here is very active, and the best price we can obtain is US$135 per long ton.”
2.2 More Use of the Active Voice
In business English, there is more usage of active voice than the passive voice, because the active voice emphasizes only one“side”in a business activity.In general, business English pays more attention to precision, the sentence is more complex, difficult and longer, making extensive use of clauses and active voice.For example,
1) “We have been inconvenienced by the delay.You should telex us immediately of the earliest possible date of shipment for our consideration without prejudicing our right to cancel the order and/or lodge claims for our
2) “Upon receipt of your advice, we shall open the letter of credit immediately.”
2.3 More Uses of Direct Expression
In business English, ways of expressing things are clearer and more specific.For example, in business English, we cannot say, "We wish to confirm our telex dispatched yesterday", but to say, "We confirm our telex of July 2nd 2009", because the former one is more clear and specific.Here are examples of two expressions of the same meaning:
Version A:Open the covering letter of credit.
Version B:The covering letter of credit is to be opened.
From the above two sentences, we can see that version A is more direct than version B, but has the same effect in expressing the meaning.Since business English makes efficiency their priority, simple words are applicable to express messages in direct way.Using simple words is good for people to communicate, to immediately catch the meaning.But complex words or uncommon words are difficult to understand.So it is understandable that traders use simple words rather than complex or rare words.
2.4 Use of Courteous Tone
As for communication, people should pay attention to politeness.In particular, polite tone is always adopted in business letter writing.The following example will demonstrate this very well.
“We are very pleased to inform you that we distributed through the SS"Brisbane"under the heading S/C to Accra goods, and believe the goods will prove to be satisfactory to you.I am very pleased to do business with you.We thank you very much to introduce our products and the efforts made by your market.The development of trade would be of great help to improve the friendship between the people of our countries.We sincerely hope that the successful implementation of your first order, will lead to further cooperation of business in the future.”
This is part of a business letter.We can see many verbs and phrases displaying polite tone, such as“appreciation”, “sincerely hope”, “very pleased”, and so on.There are lots of honorifics and modest words in English, for instance, “excuse me”, “pardon me”, “I say there”, “we would appreciate...”, “we would be glad to”and modal verbs“would”, “could, etc.
2.5 Use of Abbreviations
The word"abbreviation"strictly means shortening or codex, usually refers to a letter or a group of letters taken from a single word or phrase, and for the sake of brevity, to represent words or phrases.In business English, abbreviations are very often used to save space and time.This is consistent with the simplicity of business English.However, when we use the abbreviation, we should know what it means, where it comes from.In business English, most abbreviations have fixed meanings.
1) International Trade Terms
CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) 成本加保费加运费
CIP (Carriage and Insurance Paid to) 运费保险费付至
FCA (Free Carrier) 货交承运人
2) International Trade Abbreviations
F.A.Q (fair average quality) 平均中等品质
D.W.T (dead weight on) 载重吨位
3) Country Codes
CN (China) 中国
US (United States) 美国
UK (the United Kingdom) 英国
4) International Organizations
ICC (=International Chamber of Commerce) 国际商会
IMF (=International Monetary Fund) 国际货币基金组织
5) Currency Codes
CNY (=Chinese Yuan) 人民币
USD (=United State Dollar) 美元
Business English is characterized by its lexis, syntax and words.The characteristics should be fully understood and flexibly applied in Business.In order to grasp exactly and exercise skillfully the business English, it is necessary for us to learn some related international business knowledge and to learn the linguistic features of business English.
参考文献
[1]Ying wen xue xi bianjibu, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Eng-lish-Chinese Dictionary (Extended 4th Edition) [M].北京:商务印书馆, 2004.
[2]Zhou Zhenbang.Practical International Trade[M].青岛:青岛海洋大学出版社, 1998:10-50.
[3]李玉香.谈商务英语的语言特点及翻译[J].江西师范大学学报, 2005.
[4]戚云芳.新编外经贸英语函电与谈判[M].浙江大学出版社, 2007.
[5]帅建林.国际贸易实务[M].西南财经大学出版社, 2005.
[6]余兰.商务英语的语言特点及翻译技巧[J].西南民族大学学报:人文社科版, 2009.
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