Dear Sir or Madam

[Englishlanguage]

If, while writing a letter, you don't know whether it will be read by a man or by a woman, what are you supposed to write in the salutation.
Is Dear Sir or Madam ok?
I don't mean Dear Sir if it's a man or Dear Madam if it's a woman but literally Dear Sir or Madam.
Thank you in advance

 

[curmudgeon]

More commonly Dear sir/madam but or is ok

 

[Englishlanguage]

More commonly Dear sir/madam but or is ok

Thank you

 

[Englishlanguage]

Is this generally considered rude because you ignore the name of the person you are addressing to?

 

[Anglika]

Is this generally considered rude because you ignore the name of the person you are addressing to?

If you mean you have a name, but you are unsure as to whether it is male or female, then the common technique nowadays is to write "Dear Lou Grade", and hope that you will find out from the reply.

A catch-all will be to address it to "Dear Mr xxxxx", and again, hope that the reply tells you if you are right or wrong.

You can of course always ring the person's office and ask the receptionist!