'Yours Faithfully, Yours Sincerely or Thanks' - When to use?

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Anonymous

#246086 Sun, 16 Jul 06 04:55 PM

So when do you use yours truly??

Anonymous

Yours sincerely

MrPedantic

#246408 Mon, 17 Jul 06 10:33 PM

Hello Anon

"Yours truly" is mostly used in American English, so I'm not too sure. Maybe a passing AmE will let us know.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,931)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Anonymous

#248576 Tue, 25 Jul 06 04:28 AM

Hello

I signed my dads girlfriends birthday card Sincerely, he thinks this is inappropriate, and disrespectful, this was truley not my intent, I sincerely wish her a Happy Birthday

Let me know if I am wrong

Patty

Anonymous

Yours sincerely

Mister Micawber

#248579 Tue, 25 Jul 06 04:41 AM

Sincerely is certainly not disrespectful; it is quite nice. It may be a little formal, and I suppose that your dad would have preferred you to sign it Love. Love is quite useful in this way, as it does not require love, but does express casual, close friendliness-- so long as you don't use it to a person of a similar age and opposite sex.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (20,199)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Yours sincerely

Grammar Geek

#248617 Tue, 25 Jul 06 06:23 AM

MrPedantic wrote:

Hello Anon

"Yours truly" is mostly used in American English, so I'm not too sure. Maybe a passing AmE will let us know.

MrP

Passing American here.

Having spent most of my day today drafting business letters (dunning letters, actually), I can honestly say I have never closed a business letter with anything other than "Sincerely," In no way is this considered casual or informal in business use in the U.S.

I don't know that I have ever used "Yours truly," but I suppose I would use it in personal correspondence to someone I don't know well. For example, if a friend of a friend had hosted me on a visit, my "bread and butter note" might be closed that way. Since we are a shockingly casual race, we tend to end letters with things like "Thanks again," or "Looking forward to seeing you soon," and then signing our names.

Sometimes as I find myself typing "Sincerely" I have this passing fanciful notion that somewhere in a vault are all the letter that were written insincerely, but were not allowed to be sent out.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,195)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Yours sincerely, American English, Business letters

Anonymous

#251582 Wed, 02 Aug 06 11:24 AM

Hello everyone, I found this site via google due to a debate with a colleague over the correct use of sincerely/faithfully in a letter

My argument is that when you dont know someone and wish to send them a formal letter, you end with 'yours sincerely' as its the initiation of correspondence and its to show you are sincere in your words and motives. Once they have replied and you write to them again then you have established a rapport with the person so therefore are faithful to them in your correspondence hence 'yours faithfully'

Other posts in this thread seem to argue the other side and therefore the majority disagrees with my reasoning. I guess im wrong then lol

But as someone pointed out, the english language has evolved as a result of constant change and revision, so hopefully people in future might agree that my logic on this is the most reasonable and the system will be inverted one day so that its finally correct!

Thanks

Anonymous

Yours faithfully, Yours sincerely, Formal letter, Formal letters

nona the brit

#251621 Wed, 02 Aug 06 02:51 PM

I agree that it does sound more logical your way but the business convention is the other way round. Just one of those things.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,296)

The name says it all.

Yours sincerely

Anonymous

#252091 Thu, 03 Aug 06 07:49 PM

With regards to exclamation marks, surely the language used should denote the emotion. Only in reported speach should you need an exclamation mark to show that the words were expressed forcefully.

Anonymous

Regards, Yours sincerely, Exclamation marks

MrPedantic

#252132 Thu, 03 Aug 06 10:32 PM

Or perhaps with an exclamation.

MrP

MrPedantic

Yours sincerely

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