{"id":85689,"date":"2025-07-17T19:10:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/glossary\/forwarding\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T05:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T05:04:56","slug":"forwarding","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/forwarding\/","title":{"rendered":"Forwarding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You get a quote that your business partner needs to see. Or a newsletter you know a friend will love. Instead of copying the text, you click a button and the message goes out to someone else. That’s forwarding an email.<\/p>\n\n

It’s one of the most common things people do with email. But it has its own rules, a few risks and a curious effect on your email marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n

What does forwarding an email mean?<\/h2>\n\n

Forwarding an email means sending a message you’ve received to someone else, with its original content and, usually, its attachments. In Spanish, it’s called reenviar<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

When you do, your email program creates a new message that is sent from your account. The subject line stays the same, with a prefix in front: “Fwd:” in Gmail and “RV:” in the Spanish-language versions of Outlook. And the email body<\/a> shows the original message with its sender<\/a>, date and subject line<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

You choose the new recipient<\/a> and can add a comment above it. The person who wrote to you (the original sender) gets no notification that you’ve shared their message.<\/p>\n\n

“Reenviar” or “renviar”?<\/h2>\n\n

Both spellings of the Spanish verb exist, but they don’t carry the same weight. The RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) says that “reenviar” is the most widely used spelling today, although it doesn’t consider “renviar” incorrect. Fund\u00e9u recommends the form with a double e.<\/p>\n\n

Watch the accents when conjugating it, too: “yo reenv\u00edo”, “ella reenv\u00eda”. And pronouns are attached to the verb: “reenv\u00edamelo”.<\/p>\n\n

Forward, reply and reply all<\/h2>\n\n

These three buttons sit side by side, and they’re often confused. Here are the differences:<\/p>\n\n

Action<\/th>Who it goes to<\/th>What it includes<\/th>Subject line prefix<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Reply<\/a><\/td>Only the sender<\/td>Your reply and the quoted message<\/td>RE:<\/td><\/tr>
Reply all<\/td>The sender and all recipients and CC’d addresses<\/td>Your reply and the quoted message<\/td>RE:<\/td><\/tr>
Forward<\/td>Whoever you choose<\/td>The original message and its attachments<\/td>RV: \/ Fwd: \/ FW:<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

The key difference is attachments. When you reply, they’re usually left out; when you forward, they’re included. If someone needs a file that came with the email, forwarding the email is the quickest way.<\/p>\n\n

How to forward an email<\/h2>\n\n

It works the same way in almost every email program. Open the message, click “Forward” (an arrow pointing right), type the recipient’s address, add a comment if you want and send it.<\/p>\n\n

In Gmail you can also forward an email as an attachment: select the message, open the more options menu and choose “Forward as attachment”. Outlook has the same feature. It’s useful when you want to keep the original headers<\/a>, for example to report a phishing<\/a> attempt to your security team.<\/p>\n\n

\"Forward,<\/figure>\n\n

You can also set up automatic forwarding. In Gmail<\/a>, you turn it on in your account settings, and the destination address has to confirm it with a code. In Outlook<\/a>, you do it with a rule. In Microsoft 365 business accounts, automatic forwarding to external addresses has been turned off by default since 2021. If you try it, you’ll get the error “5.7.520”.<\/p>\n\n

Best practices for forwarding an email<\/h2>\n\n

It’s an easy thing to do, and that’s exactly why you should take care when forwarding an email:<\/p>\n\n