How to write a postcard in English

Here’s a photo of postcards for sale in Germany, taken by Shawndra and Simon.

Before, I posted about writing a postcard through PostCrossing. Here are some ideas about how to write a polite and friendly postcard in English. It’s easy! There’s not much space on the card, so you can only write a few lines.

If you use PostCrossing, you will be writing a postcard to a stranger. In that case, you could write something like the below example. Of course, the underlined sections are up to you.

Dear Hans Schmidt,

My name is Clarissa Ryan. I am an English teacher and I love to read and surf the web. I live in Fremont, California, USA, which is a medium-sized city near San Francisco. The picture on this postcard is a photo of the San Francisco Bay. I often see the bay when I drive around my town.

Anyway, I would love to hear back from you. My return address is: 123 Fake St., Fremont CA 94538, USA.

– Clarissa [Lastname]

Here is another possible PostCrossing example, written for you by my former roommate, Jenn:

Dear Bob O’Reilly,

I found this post card and had to send it to someone. It was much too pretty to keep. I hope that you are well and will send me a postcard back.

Sincerely,

Jenn W.
123 Fake St.
Fremont, CA 94538
USA

(Thanks, Jenn!)

Anyway, I hope you’ll try PostCrossing.

Here’s another postcard example. It’s what I might write to a friend on a San Diego Zoo postcard:

Dear Tora,

I’ve been in San Diego for two days now. The weather is pretty nice and we’ve been having a great time. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. We saw some baby tigers–you would have loved them! Maybe we can go there together someday. Anyway, I hope you’re doing well! Take care!

– Clarissa

A postcard with a photo of a place in California that a Japanese friend liked to visit:

Dear Shu,

How’s everything going? We saw this postcard and thought of you. It would be great if you could come to California again sometime, or if we could go to Japan.
Take care!

– C. & C.

When I looked at postcard back in Google Images, I noticed that a lot of people sent postcard to themselves. These postcards just say “We were here!” and the date. I think I like choosing postcards more than I like writing them! I often buy postcards, but I forget to mail them. It’s a bad habit! So maybe I should send them to myself while I’m traveling.

Other people send very simple postcards to their friends. These just say things like…

Dear Carolyn,
Hi from Hawaii!!!
Love, Clarissa

So as you can see, writing a postcard in English can be VERY easy!

Note: This entry was re-written on January 26, 2010, to make it easier to read and more useful.