Greeting and Closing Rules for the TOEFL Email

Your greeting and closing are the first and last things a reader sees, and they set the tone for the entire TOEFL email before your content is even evaluated. Use the name given in the prompt, match the formality to the recipient, and keep both short.

Greetings: use the name you're given

The prompt almost always names a recipient — use it exactly. For a professor or administrator: "Dear Professor Turner," or "Dear Dr. Kim,". For a classmate or peer: "Hi Jordan," or "Hello Sam,". Never leave the greeting generic ("To whom it may concern") when a name is provided — it signals you didn't read the prompt carefully.

Closings: match the formality of the greeting

A formal greeting should be paired with a formal closing: "Sincerely," or "Best regards," followed by your name (or a placeholder like "Your name" if the prompt doesn't require signing a specific identity). A casual greeting pairs naturally with a casual closing: "Thanks," or "See you then,".

A quick reference table

Recipient	Greeting	Closing
Professor / advisor / administrator	Dear Professor [Name],	Sincerely, / Best regards,
Classmate / teammate / club member	Hi [Name], / Hello [Name],	Thanks, / See you then,

The most common mistake

Mismatching a formal greeting with a casual closing (or vice versa) reads as inconsistent. "Dear Professor Turner," followed by "Thanks a bunch!" undercuts the formal tone you set at the top. Keep the register consistent from greeting to closing.

Why the greeting sets expectations early

A reader forms an impression of your email's tone from the very first line, before reading any of the required points. If your greeting is formal and precise, the reader expects the rest of the email to match — and a sudden shift to casual language partway through will feel jarring even if each individual sentence is fine on its own. Starting with the right register makes the rest of the email easier to keep consistent, because you've already set the tone you need to maintain.

What to do when the prompt gives a title but no first name

Some prompts describe a recipient by role only — "the housing office," "your professor" — without a specific name. In these cases, use a role-based formal greeting: "Dear Housing Office," or "Dear Professor," both work well and still signal the appropriate formality without inventing a name that wasn't given.

Why small greeting choices carry more weight than they seem

A greeting is only a few words, but it's disproportionately visible to a reader because it's the very first thing they process. An oddly casual greeting toward a professor, or an oddly stiff one toward a classmate, can color how the reader interprets the rest of the message even if the body text is well-written. Treating the greeting and closing as quick, deliberate choices — rather than an afterthought typed on autopilot — is a small habit that protects tone across the entire response.

Practicing greetings and closings in isolation

Because greetings and closings are short, they're easy to drill separately from full timed practice. Try writing five greeting/closing pairs for five different recipient types in under two minutes, without writing the email body at all. This builds the pattern-matching speed you need during the real 7-minute task, when you won't have time to deliberate over the opening line.

What a mismatched pair costs you in practice

A mismatched greeting and closing rarely causes a reader to misunderstand your required points — the cost shows up specifically under Social Conventions and Tone, which is judged independently of coverage. In practice, this means a response can state all three required points perfectly and still lose tone points purely because the greeting and closing don't agree with each other or with the recipient's role. Treating this pair as a fast, deliberate check before you submit closes an easy gap that has nothing to do with your ideas or grammar.

Try this yourself

Write the same short message with a mismatched greeting/closing pair, then rewrite it with a matched pair. Check both versions with the TOEFL email checker to see how tone feedback changes.

Frequently asked questions

What if the prompt doesn't give a name?

Use a generic but still appropriately formal or informal greeting matched to the described role — "Dear Professor," for an unnamed instructor, "Hi there," for an unnamed classmate.

Does the closing need my real name?

No — a placeholder like "Your name" or a first name is fine; the task is not evaluating identity, only appropriate register.

Can I use "Regards," for every recipient?

It's a safe middle-ground formal closing, but it reads oddly paired with a very casual greeting to a classmate — keep both ends of the message consistent.

See the full tone picture in matching tone to the recipient, or start with how to write the TOEFL email.