Dear Name: Comma or Colon?
Punctuation after “Dear Name” depends on correspondence style. Government of Canada guidance uses a colon for standard North American business letters and a comma for more personal or social business correspondence.
Use a colon for a formal North American business-letter salutation; use a comma for more personal correspondence or when your email/house style specifies it.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
The choice is a correspondence-style convention, not a universal sentence-grammar rule. Match the formality and the style system governing the message.
Further guidance
Recommendation
Use a colon after “Dear Name” in a formal North American business letter. Use a comma when the message is more personal or when the applicable email/house style calls for it.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Business letters: Salutation (opens in a new tab)Government of Canada Language Portal · Government guidance on colon versus comma punctuation after salutations in business and more personal correspondence.