English Conversation

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Electronic conversation

While face-to-face conversations are still considered to be the best ones, people

everywhere are depending more and more on electronic devices for communica-

tion. Apart from the fixed telephone, which has been around since 1876—and is

still going strong—conversations are now also carried on through cell phones,

e-mail, and other electronic devices.

E-mail

E-mail (electronic mail) enables written conversations that are either typed on a

computer or cell phone keyboard or entered on a touch screen on a cell phone or

other electronic device. These messages are then sent to the desired recipient via

the Internet. In order to use e-mail, you need to have an e-mail address, and you

need to know the e-mail address of the person with whom you wish to

communicate.

E-mail addresses can be assigned by the company that provides an Internet

connection or through companies that issue subscriptions through the Internet.

An e-mail address begins with a series of numbers or letters (of the individual’s

choosing), followed by the symbol @ (pronounced “at”), and then followed by the

name of the provider, a period (pronounced “dot”), and finally a suffix of two or

three more letters that indicates the domain—the type of organization that is pro-

viding the e-mail account. Here are some examples of these final domain letters:

com commercial (the most widely used suffix; preferred by businesses)

edu education (for schools, colleges, and universities)

gov government (for government organizations)

net network (most commonly used by Internet service providers)

org organization (primarily used by nonprofit groups and trade

associations)

The suffix can alternatively indicate the name of the source country. For

example:

au Australia

es Spain

mx Mexico

uk United Kingdom

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