Sample of Personal Letter

Personal Letter 1
To a Close Friend or Relative

Cactus City, den 25. Nov. 2002¹     

Liebe Maria,²
Über deinen³ letzten Brief haben wir uns sehr gefreut! Tut mir leid, dass ich schon lange nicht geantwortet habe, aber nun endlich bekommst du mal wieder ein Lebenszeichen von uns.
Wie du schon weißt, war Jim drei Wochen lang in Asien auf Geschäftsreise. Da musste ich hier zu Hause fast alles machen und kam nie dazu, dir zu schreiben. Aber mittlerweile läuft fast alles bei uns wieder "normal" and ich habe ein bisschen Zeit, um zur Feder zu greifen.
Am Mittwoch waren wir bei Barbara und Dan zum Abendessen. Sie lassen auch grüßen und hoffen dich wieder im Sommer in Berlin zu besuchen. Dan arbeitet immer noch bei...
Schöne Grüße, auch von Jim!
Deine Sarah [your signed first name]⁴

1 City from which you are writing and the date; the den is optional
2 Liebe... Dear... For a male, you would write Lieber...
3 deinen your Under the new spelling rules, the familiar "you" forms are not capitalized, but many Germans still do so anyway.
4 A male would use Dein


More Closing Phrases & Formulae
Alles Liebe - All my/our love, with love
Herzliche Grüße - Best wishes/Yours/Regards
Liebe Grüße und Küsse - Love and kisses
Viele liebe Grüße - Yours


Personal Letter 1
English Translation

Cactus City, the 25th of Nov. 2002     

Dear Maria,
We were so glad to get your last letter! I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to reply, but now once again you're finally getting some indication that we're still alive.
As you already know, Jim was traveling in Asia on business for three weeks, so I had to do almost everything here at home, and never could find the time to write you. But in the meantime, almost everything here is running "normally" again, and I have a little time to set pen to paper.
On Wednesday we had dinner at Barbara and Dan's. They say hello and are hoping to visit you again in Berlin this summer. Dan is still working at...
Best wishes - from Jim, too!
Your Sarah


 * from German.about.com

Personal Letter Phrases

Personal Letter Phrases 2NOTE: These phrases are only appropriate for personal correspondence, not in formal or business situations!
English	Deutsch
General Phrases
Thank you for your letter	Vielen Dank für deinen Brief
It was good to hear from you again	Ich habe mich gefreut, wieder von dir zu hören
I'm sorry that I haven't written for so long	Tut mir Leid, dass ich so lange nicht geschrieben habe
Please don't be mad at me for...	Sei mir bitte nicht böse, dass ich...
Closing Remarks
Give my regards/love to Maria and Hans	Ganz liebe Grüße an Maria und Hans
Tell them how much I miss them	Sag ihnen, wie sehr sie mir fehlen
Tell her/him how much I miss her/him	Sag ihr/ihm, wie sehr sie/er mir fehlt
Please write again soon!	Schreib mal wieder!
Let us hear from you now and then	Lasst ab und zu wieder von dir hören

* from German.about.com

Parts of a Business Letter (German)

 English term = German term in Singular form / Plural term

Sender = der Absender / die Absender

Recipient = der Adressat / die Adressaten

Date and Place = der Ort und das Datum / die Orte / die Daten

Subject Heading = die Betreffzeile / die Betreffzeilen

Salutation or Form of Address = die Anrede / die Anreden

Word/Text = der Text / die Texte

Complimentary Close = die Grußformel / die Grußformeln

Signature = die Unterschrift / die Unterschriften

Enclosures = die Anlagen (already in plural, singular is die Anlage)

Happenings

Hallo! It has been long since I have last posted something here. Been busy with my Sprachkurs and enjoying the nice sunny weather. Several things happened lately. 

(1) An important lifelong plan has been made and we wish that it would push through. 

(2) We have planted some Strawberries plants in our Balcony. And now we have atleast 20 pieces of future-fruits! :-) I am excited to harvest them.

(3) Cooking course for this year began yesterday. And we still have 3 more meetings to go! Slurrrppp...

(4) I am getting new eyeglasses. I have been suffering from headaches constantly these past weeks. Been to the Eyedoctor and had several intensive eyecheck-ups. Unfortunately, there has been a great delay. I should have gotten the glasses 3 weeks ago. Anyway, I am still waiting and hoping that it would help me get rid of these headaches.

(5) We will be having an International dinner night on the 25th of June with our Bible study friends. So I will be going to cook a Filipino dish- Adobo, chicken and pork meat. My Sweetie will be preparing a German specialty, one will be preparing a Sri-Lanka specialty, Spanish, Israeli, African, Irish food, and American specialty too. This will be really exciting!

(6) And lately, as I have interacted with my International (friends from different parts of the world who are currently living here in Germany too like me) friends and with German acquaintances, I have realized that the German language is much easier to learn than the other languages. ...Or perhaps it is because I already have the basic knowledge of it. I don't know. But I feel like I could already somehow understand them easily when they speak the language. YET there are still plenty of words which I should check out for the meanings. It could be that I have atleast already understood or grabbed hold of the grammatical aspect of the language. I really really hope someday, I could tell anybody that the German language is easy to learn. I do wish I will be articulated in the German language in a short period of time...Sooooo it requires more hardwork from me!

(7) I am fortunate I have 3 lovely and very helpful teachers in my Sprachkurs. Two teachers from my previous class and one in my current class. I think I enjoy more now with our speaking and listening seatworks. These were my weaknesses before. To listen to German conversations and to interact with other people by speaking to them and exchanging some opinions and ideas.

Classes will end on June 10. Summer vacation starts! We would be driving to Italy in Summer. What about you?

Bad Pyrmont Park, Europe's Best Park 2006

This cute little bag which I bought at New Yorker using the Gift Card that I won in their contest

 is currently my everyday-bag.

We have visited Bad Pyrmont last Weekend. And it was so great. The weather was a bit so lala. The sun was shining but it was very windy. My Husband made many photos of me in this bench with my new umbrella which he bought for me at one of the shops in Wandelhalle. I like the umbrella so much that I won't be using it when it is raining. The leopard design on the umbrella is one of my favorites.