Re: How to end a letter

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 09:41:14 GMT

If you know the name of the person you are addressing - e.g. if you started the letter Dear Mr... then you should end the letter Yours sincerely,...

If you do not know the letter of the person you are addressing - e.g. if you started the letter Dear Sir or Madam or To Whom It May Concern, you should end the letter Yours Faithfully or Yours Truly.

It is possible to end the letter:

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely (or faithfully or truly),

[your name and signature]

"IÂ´ve found several choices:
a) I am looking forward to hearing you
b) I am looking forward to meeting you
c)Thanks in advance
d)Sincerely yours. "

Firstly - it is best to drop the personal pronoun "I" from this sentence in a formal letter and simply to use the construction shown above "Looking forward" instead of "I am looking forward" - The sentence under a) is not correct s it is missing the from - the sentence under b) is correct and could be used if you are certain you will be meeting the addressee (e.g. if it is an RSVP or something) - c) is not formal a more formal construction of this sentence would be 'Thank you in advance' and d) the word order should be switched - 'Yours sincerely' not 'Sincerely yours.'

response to P.D. - the sentence It is suppose that I have to write a letter is incorrect English the second is correct.

Hope this helps.

Re: Am without I

khoff — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 04:46:12 GMT

It's sometimes called "telegraphic style" - as if you were sending a telegram and paying for each word, you would leave out some words to make it shorter. You might write like this in a diary, or in a very informal letter, especially if almost every sentence would otherwidse begin with "I."

In the other example you give, "I like to write, surf the net, and am also a member of the International Club," you need the "am" because what follows it is not a construction parallel to "I like to write" and "(I like to) surf the net." It's not a great sentence either way - I wouldn't say it's incorrrect (with "am") but it seems to me that in a list of three things they should be parallel in construction. I would prefer either a more parallel construction : "I like to write, surf the net and attend the International Club" or else two more distinct clauses: "I like to write and surf the net, and I am also a member of the International Club." (without a comma after "write" it looks less like a list.) I'm not sure what the appropriate grammar rules here are, I'm just trying to explain why the original sentence sounds rather awkward to me.

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Re: How to end a letter

Re: Am without I