"Sent a letter in the post office"

[Rachel Adams]

This must be another word for word translation. Would it be better to say? "I went to the post office to send a letter" instead of the sentence below.

"I have sent a letter in the post office."

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

This must be another word for word translation. Would it be better to say[STRIKE]?[/STRIKE] "I went to the post office to send a letter" instead of the sentence below?

Yes.

"I have sent a letter in the post office."

Put question marks at the ends of questions, not in the middle.

 

[PeterCW]

"I went to the post office to send a letter" is perfectly natural English.

 

[Yankee]

"I went to the post office to send a letter" is perfectly natural English.

And/or ".....mailed a letter...".

 

[GoesStation]

And/or ".....mailed a letter...".

Only in American English.

 

[tedmc]

Or "post a letter".

 

[GoesStation]

Or "post a letter".

In British English, yes. We don't use the expression here in the United States.

 

[Rover_KE]

We don't need to go to the post office to send a letter.

We stick a stamp on the envelope and put in a (UK) red post box or (USA) blue mailbox in the street.

 

[PeterCW]

We don't need to go to the post office to send a letter.

We stick a stamp on the envelope and put in a (UK) red post box or (USA) blue mailbox in the street.

You can't get a "proof of posting" from the post box.

 

[GoesStation]

We don't need to go to the post office to send a letter.

We stick a stamp on the envelope and put in a (UK) red post box or (USA) blue mailbox in the street.

I stick it in my mailbox and raise the red lever on it to indicate that it contains outbound mail.

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes—we can't do that here. We envy your ability to do that.

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes—we can't do that here. We envy your ability to do that.

I'm not sure we do these days. During the strictest times of lockdown, going out for a nice walk to post a letter was many people's excuse for leaving the house.

 

[GoesStation]

The US Postal Service has been removing public mailboxes for decades for lack of use. The practice hit social media during the runup to the 2020 presidential election when a photo of a truck full of old mailboxes went around attached to outraged language asserting that they had just been removed to make voting by mail more difficult.