Comments on: “Yours faithfully” or “Yours sincerely”?

By: Talya

Talya — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:29:33 +0000

Can I just point out to the North American dislikers, that language form does change over time? Like how in North America, practice is both the verb and the noun, while in “non-American” English, practice is a noun and practise is a verb. Language will change over the course of time. Take the invasion of William the Conqueror into England, and how that changed the shape of what we call Modern English. Take Creole, a mix of French, Portuguese, Spanish, and native languages, that morphed into Creole. Take Japanese, which took certain characters of Chinese.
Now just think.

By: Ivor

Ivor — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:45:10 +0000

Dear Tess,

I fully understand your wrath! No wonder our economy is in such a mess, when senior managers waste valuable time arguing over semantics. When working for Social Services, I was directed to compose a ‘Communications Policy’. However, my university- educated bosses complained bitterly because I used the word ‘facilitate’ – which they criticised as being too pompous (and could I please use simple language?). They would not accept that it was a word in common usage! Grrr!!!

Yours most sincerely,

Ivor

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:13:21 +0000

It is a shame this string turned into an ugly American discussion. I was curious as to the origins of some closings and found this page. Throughout time word usage, like everything else, obviously changes. It makes no sense to expect language to remain unaltered while the rest of the world moves on. Resisting change simply because you feel that any change stems from ignorance or laziness seems self righteous to me. If you can’t get past the use of “Sincerely,” in a business letter from an American, you should ask yourself whether your priorities are in check and whether you have too much time on your hands. That’s an acceptable valediction in America, according to my alma mater’s business writing professors.

By: Sal

Sal — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 05:04:39 +0000

Good thing that Tess didn’t sign off with “Yours in Christ”. Is that appropriate for a business letter? (I’m being sarcastic; don’t crucify me! Sorry, bad pun :-O)

By: iMiM

iMiM — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:27:08 +0000

Speaking of lazy, Wadey… I guess as an Aussie you are lying on your back typing this because of your expert capitalization skills (or capitalisation if you can’t handle the spelling difference). I can handle both

I do agree about the date thing. But that’s more a matter that in North America, they haven’t fully adopted the metric system. A shame really because since I am used to both systems, it’s always confusing for me so I usually stick to ISO or include the month abbrev. More unwieldy but I’m not as lazy as an Australian so I can handle it.

Even though I’ve been taught to use “Yours sincerely” or “Yours truly”, or the reverse (Sincerely yours or Truly yours) I always refrained from using it because it always seemed insincere or false to me. I also agree, using “yours” is too intimate for my taste as a business salutation. I wouldn’t even use it for my friends/family, preferring xxx or whatever Arthur R S Eagle would find appropriate.

I picked up using “Kind regards”, or just “Regards”, as a salutation because it had the right tone for business, and have stuck with it for the past 10 years or so. You can use it when you’re being insincere and false without guilt.

I personally love it when non native English speakers literally translate their salutations into English. My time in Netherlands, I saw “with friendly greetings” which directly translates from ” Met vriendelijke groeten” or also “met vrolijk groeten”. However the reverse translations (by non native Dutch speakers into Dutch) are usually more interesting…

In Dutch, vrolijk is sometimes confused by non native dutch speakers with vrouwlijk which means womanly…

Also non native dutch speakers will mispell “groeten” with “groenten” (which means vegetables).

So if you’re reading a letter in Dutch, you sometimes get letters with the closing..
“with womanly greetings” or “with friendly veggies”.

Will that catch on in English?