How to Start a Pen Pal Letter: 30 First Lines That Work

Short answer: start with the moment that made you write, not with a greeting. Instead of "Hi, how are you?", try "I walked past the bakery you told me about today, and it had closed." The reader steps into your day from the first line.

That also makes your letter stand out: on Lettie, 48% of first letters written in English and other Latin-script languages open with "Hello", "Hi" or "Hey", and only 2% with "Dear" (246 first letters, pen pal letter statistics).

30 first lines, by situation

Writing to	First line
A new pen pal	I read your line about taking the bus on purpose when it rains, and I started this letter right after.
A new pen pal	I cross a bridge over the Han River every morning in Seoul. Today the fog hid the other side.
A new pen pal	You said you're learning to bake bread, so I have to tell you about the loaf I burned on Sunday.
A new pen pal	Your profile mentions a cat called Pickle, and I need to know how a cat ends up with that name.
A new pen pal	I've never written to a stranger before, so I'll start with the view from my desk: a car park and one very stubborn tree.
A letter you picked up	Your letter about a train that never came found me while I was, of all things, waiting for a bus.
A letter you picked up	I picked up your envelope this morning and read it twice. The part about your grandmother's garden stayed with me.
A letter you picked up	You asked whoever found your letter to describe their street. Mine smells of fried chicken after 6 p.m.
A letter you picked up	You wrote that nobody in your town sends letters anymore. Somebody on the other side of the world just did.
Someone abroad	It's 11 p.m. here in Seoul and only the convenience store lights are on. What time is it where you are?
Someone abroad	What do people eat on rainy days where you live? Here a lot of us make green-onion pancakes.
Someone abroad	It's a public holiday here, so the streets are empty and I finally have time to write properly.
Someone abroad	I looked up your city on a map before writing this, and now I want to know why the river bends like that.
Someone abroad	It was the first cold morning of the year here. What's the first sign of autumn where you are?
A language partner	I'm writing the first two lines in Spanish and the rest in English, so please forgive what happens next.
A language partner	I learned the word for "drizzle" in your language this week, and it has drizzled every day since.
A language partner	My textbook says this is a polite way to say hello. Tell me if I just sounded like an old radio presenter.
After a long silence	It's been a while. I moved, and the first view from the new window is the thing I wanted to tell you first.
After a long silence	I turned the calendar page and saw your birthday is next week, so I picked up a pen.
After a long silence	Sorry for the long gap: exams ate October. Here's the one good thing that happened in the middle of them.
A friend	I just walked past the place where we always got noodles, so I'm writing to you from the bench outside.
A friend	I finally finished the book you gave me. You were in my head for the whole last chapter.
A friend	Someone on the train was humming the song we played to death in school, and I had to write to you.
Family	Mum, I made your soup on my own for the first time tonight. It came out about half as good as yours.
Family	Dad, the fountain pen you gave me sits on my desk now, and I'm writing this with it.
Family	Grandma, I found your handwriting on the back of an old recipe card today, so here is my reply, twenty years late.
A thank-you	I still think about the coffee you handed me in the hallway the day my presentation fell apart.
A thank-you	I played the guitar in front of people for the first time today, and it started with your lessons.
A thank-you	Your last letter arrived on a bad day, and it turned the whole evening around.
A thank-you	I copied one sentence from your letter onto a sticky note, and it has been on my fridge all week.

A formula you can reuse

Most of the lines above have the same three parts:

1. A moment. Something that happened today or that you can see right now ("the first cold morning of the year").
2. One detail. The specific thing that makes it yours ("only the convenience store lights are on").
3. A door. A question or a hook the other person can walk through ("What time is it where you are?").

If you are stuck, finish one of these: Today I noticed…, Right now I can hear…, The reason I'm writing is…

What to avoid in the first sentence

• Only introducing yourself. "Hi, I'm Min" can wait for the second sentence. The first one belongs to a scene or a reason.
• A long apology. If you're replying late, apologise in one line and move on to your news.
• A list of questions. One question is enough, and it lands better after you've shared something of your own.
• Weather alone. If you mention the weather, say what you did in it.

The rest of a first letter

A first letter does not need to be long. One scene, a few things about you, and one question is a complete letter, usually somewhere around 150 to 300 words.

• About you: two or three things that invite a question back (what you're learning, a place you love, what your week looks like), rather than a full profile.
• One question: ask about something you actually want to know. "What's a normal Tuesday like for you?" gets a better answer than "Tell me about yourself."
• An ending: a line that leaves the door open. For example: Write back when the weather changes over there. · Tell me one thing that made you laugh this week. · No rush, good letters are worth the wait. · Until the next envelope, · Yours, from a rainy Seoul.

For what to say in the letters after the first one, see What to Write to a Pen Pal and how to keep a pen pal conversation going.

How first letters work on Lettie

• Letters take time to arrive. A letter flies across a globe and lands in 1 to 24 hours depending on the distance between the two countries, so the first line is the first thing someone opens after a wait.
• Write in your own language. Letters are translated into the reader's language (70+ languages), so the scene matters more than perfect grammar.
• You take turns. After you send a letter, you write again once their reply arrives.
• No profile photos. People see a pixel character instead of a face, so your first line does more of the introducing.
• You can answer a stranger's letter. Discover hands you envelopes other people released; replying to one is the easiest first letter there is. See 7 first-letter examples for replying to a letter you picked up.

Pen pal etiquette

Do: reply when you can, even briefly; ask about their world as much as you share yours; be curious about cultural differences rather than judging them.

Don't: ask for personal contact details or photos early; push political or religious views; disappear without a word. A one-line "busy month, writing soon" is kinder than silence.

Start your first letter on Lettie. Free on iPhone and Android.