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I am trying to say I had talked to her through email several times. Which is the correct way of saying it?

"I had several email conversations with her" or "conversation"?

"I had several email communications with her" or "communication"?

Or something else?

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    I'm not aware of a 'right' and 'wrong' way to say this. I think either would be acceptable - or 'exchanges'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 8:22
  • I had several exchanges of emails with her.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 2, 2022 at 19:54

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I most often use "email exchanges" myself, but there is nothing wrong with "conversations", "communications" or "interactions". Other terms might also be used. Any of these would br understood by a fluent speaker, and there would be no significant difference in meaning.

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  • But note that several means “more than one.” So the two singular forms you ask about, conversation and communication, would be wrong.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Oct 10, 2023 at 0:24
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No, you can not say "I had a several email conversations with her". (This is in the post's title.) The indefinite article is generally reserved for singular nouns, not plural ones.

You omitted the indefinite article in the examples in the body but asked about "conversations" vs. "conversation" and "communications" vs. "communication". The adjective (or determiner) "several" requires a plural noun, so only the first options would be correct. Thus:

I had several email conversations with her.

Or:

I had several email communications with her.

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Conversation is understandable, but I wouldn't use it because, to my mind, a conversation is real-time... face to face, phone, Zoom, at a pinch WhatsApp... but not email.

Exchange is a nice word to use for letters or emails, because it suggests that individual messages are going back and forth, though personally I would prefer to use it as a verb in this context.

I have exchanged several emails with her

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