To Whom It May Concern

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Osee  #528804  Tue, 17 Jun 08 09:00 PM

Does this have something to do with that people like putting "longer" words at the end to draw attention. For example, when starting a speech, people say "Ladies and Gentlemen," where the world gentlemen is longer than the word ladies. While in "Dear Sir or Madam", Madam is longer than Sir. Just for fun.

  
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Yoong Liat  #529648  Thu, 19 Jun 08 04:41 PM

Osee

Does this have something to do with that people like putting "longer" words at the end to draw attention. For example, when starting a speech, people say "Ladies and Gentlemen," where the world gentlemen is longer than the word ladies. While in "Dear Sir or Madam", Madam is longer than Sir. Just for fun.

I think the reason for writing "Dear Sir/Madam" is that in the past, when we didn't know whether the Director, Manager, etc was a man or a woman, we wrote "Dear Sir'. Later it was felt that it was unfair to write 'Dear Sir' because the person in authority might be a woman.  In older grammar books, the advice is to write 'Dear Sir'. 

Formerly, when we wrote 'he', it was understood that opposite sex was included.  But nowadays we write he/she, he or she, or s/he.

A woman uses Ms if she doesn't want us to know whether she is married. Formerly, only 'mankind' was found in dictionaries. Nowadays, 'humankind' is also found.

If I'm not wrong, the above came about because of  Women's Liberation.

This is my opinion. Other members may disagree.

  
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Anonymous  #533166  Fri, 27 Jun 08 03:29 AM
I recently wrote a letter of explanation to a board of members who oversee the disbursement of financial aid to university students. Not knowing their names / gender / position / titles, I used the phrase, "To whom it may concern:". I double-checked with the English department before sending my statement and I was told that it was perfectly fine to use this phrase.
  
Anonymous  #576098  Tue, 14 Oct 08 03:29 AM
Really?

I have lived an worked in North America my whole life. And I have never seen 'Yours faithfully'. It's weird and seems more like an intimate ending. Of course my experience has been contained mostly to business and graduate school in Bio-chemistry. Maybe thats why. But now you have two data points from people saying they have not seen it used. I would maintain that there is a significant population of people that work professionally, that have not seen this.

So now I will take myself out of that population...

Yours faithfully
:-) Doug

PS - I am not weird, really!!
  
Anonymous  #576650  Wed, 15 Oct 08 03:57 PM
Clive

Hi guys,

I'd like to mention a point I offered some time ago. 'To whom it may concern' is so rarely used that I don't remember the  last time I ever used it. Perhaps half a dozen times in my entire life. Other people have also noted that in this thread that it is not often, even rarely, used, but I feel that readres may be overlooking this advice.

There seems to be so much interest in this phrase that I am concerned that English learners are going to start large numbers of letters in a way that is totally inappropriate.

Best wishes, Clive



Are there any English??
As I know this phrase is commonly used in the UK.
So it will be better to ask some English about this.
I hope that Clive allow us to use the phrase.
Thank you Clive in advance!
Simona
  
Anonymous  #576653  Wed, 15 Oct 08 04:10 PM
Note: he didn't talk about the phrase "Yours faithfully". He talked about the phrase "To whom it may concern".
  
Clive  #576741  Wed, 15 Oct 08 09:45 PM
Hi,
I hope that Clive allow us to use the phrase.

This sounds like you need my permission.  <img src= Big Smile" src="[link] _height="19" _width="19">   You don't!

Best wishes, Clive
  
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