Well if somebody is getting married, we always s ay "Congratulations⁴", don't we? "Congratulations on your happy day or on your wedding!". And "Congratulations on your anniversary!"

After the wedding comes the next card. "Congratulations on your new baby!"

This one says "a little boy". But anytime there's a birth of a child, you could write "Congratulations on the birth of your new baby" or "On the birth of your child."

There're other kinds of congratulations that you might want to do. For example, if someone moves to a new home, you might write someone a little card and say " Congratulations on your new home", or……

Or your new job. That's very common because people do change jobs. Usually you change for the better, get a better job. So it's nice to remember somebody with a card. This one just says "Congratulations". I recently sent it to a young man who graduated from school. And I think this is a standard note. My whole family signed it and we told him "good luck in the future", since he had just finished school.

The last category⁵ is very important for those crazy foreigners who are always saying "thank you".

In Western culture, one of the most important thing is to say "please" and "thank you".

So in a "thank you" card you might begin by saying, "Dear……" good friend, good neighbor, their name. And then say thank you for whatever it was, you buying me dinner, helping⁶ me with something.

when you write a "thank you " card you don't have to write a lot. And inside it's bland⁷; "thank you" is on the outside. You just write "Thank you for the lovely dinner "; "Thank you for the wonderful outing";"Thank you for the lovely gift. ."

Those are all good.And you should have at least two "thank you's" in the note, at the beginning and at the end. So it does seem like too much. But we want to go over how to close these. Some endings would be……You might end a love card with "I love you " or "Much love". But you might end a friendship card with "fondly", which means⁸ fondness and friendship, or "Your friend,Jack", or "I'm thinking of you,Rose ." And "thank you", you would end with "Thanks again".

Yes, this is a good one to remember, because in a "thank you" card, at the beginning you might say "Thank you for the wonderful evening", "We had such a good time being with you", and whoever⁹, "in your new house." Thanks again.

And a more formal one you might say, say it's your boss's son who graduated, you don't know him well. He is not a personal friend. But you send a card, you might say "Best regards" or "Best wishes" or "All the best". Those are all good ways to finish the note and then sign your name.

So if you have to write a card and you need to write it to an English speaker, now this should give you some good ideas on what to say inside your cards.