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Today, several users on a Facebook group were requesting me to send some materials to them via email. So I thought to assure them and I commented using the following sentence:

I will send the materials via email to you personally.

But no sooner had I written it than I realized it might be interpreted as "The materials will be sent to you via email by me in person." which is not what I am trying to convey. Rather I am trying to convey "The materials will be sent to you via email by me to each of you."

My next thought was individually, but I don't think I am able to use it in the desired way either.

UPDATE- I, myself, will send a particular email to each of the persons of the group.

So how should I say the sentence keeping the sense I want to mean? Can it be said using personally/individually?

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    I could not find an appropriate tag. If anybody has any suggestion regarding different tag, please feel free to retag it.
    – Mistu4u
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 10:00
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    I think you need to edit the text to clarify whether the distinction you're trying to make is that you'll send a separate email to each person, as opposed to a single group email sent to everyone at once. Using personally simply implies you'll send (one or more) emails yourself (i.e. - you won't get someone else to send it/them for you). Using individually implies you will send multiple emails, one to each person.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 14:16
  • @FumbleFingers, Please see update.
    – Mistu4u
    Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 12:14

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I will send the materials via email to you personally

Is a classic example of a dangling modifier. It could be interpreted two ways:

A: I will personally send the materials to you via email

B: I will send the materials to you personally, via email

In case A, the meaning is that "I" will be the one to write the email and click send. In case B, the email will go to directly to the recipient (not to his receptionist).

Other similar constructions include:

I will send an email to each of you personally

I will send an email to each of you individually

I.e. I will not send a group email, note that in this case "personally" has the same meaning as individually - whereas in the first scenario it more likely means that the email will not go via the receptionist or some other third party

If you want to stress that the email will not go via a third party you can avoid the ambiguity of "personally" and say:

I will send an email to you directly

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First of all, do you mean that you will NOT send one group email to all of the people who requested the materials, but instead send one email to each of them? If so, to my ear, individually sounds fine to show that meaning; the alternative would be separately. The meaning would also be quite clear by using the phrase you used in your post, to each of you.

I will send the materials via email to each of you.

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  • I will send one email to each of them.
    – Mistu4u
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 10:10
  • @Mistu, how about "singularly"? If any, I think this word could satisfy your query, no?
    – user114
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 10:15
  • @Mistu4u Individually works perfectly well in this case. I'm not sure that "to each of you" conveys the meaning you're searching for; if you send one mass group email to everyone, you're still sending it to each of them--but you're not sending it individually.
    – WendiKidd
    Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 16:58
  • @WendiKidd, No, It is not a group email. Same email but different persons, say 5 people, i.e I will send same email 5times 1time for per person.
    – Mistu4u
    Commented Feb 13, 2013 at 6:30
  • @Mistu4u Yes, in that case "individually" means what you want to say. "To each of you" does not mean that, though. :)
    – WendiKidd
    Commented Feb 13, 2013 at 18:06

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