Was just typing a letter....

[angel21]

and I was trying to remember if I should use 'Yours faithfully' or 'Yours sincerely' - anyway I figured out which one to use but then I got to thinking that these turns of phrase seem quite dated now and rather odd to use in this day and age considering how much our English language has evolved and changed.

[DEN53]

angel - if you address the letter to Dear Mr. ..... then its yours sincerely and if its addressed Dear Sir/Madam etc
then its yours faithfully.

Mind things have changed now - when I was at secretarial college we had to type the address like this:

Mr.Smith
40 Nowhere Road
Cantbebotherington
London

now its :

Mr. Smith
40 Nowhere Road
Cantbebotherington
London.



if you get my drift.

I also learnt to type on one of those big black Royal/Imperial typewriters - you had to smash the keys down to get it to print.

Its a wonder us poor typists did'nt break our fingers !!

Those were the days.

I think you may be too young to remember angel, my darling.

[DEN53]

and this has proved my point ..

I typed the address in my first post 3 spaces in on each line and this has been printed as it is set out today, in block (all aligned). Obviously the editor is not of the old school !!!!!!!!!!

[stewey]

I usually use 'sincerely': I don't bother with the 'your's'.

[Bbbananas]

Yours truly seems to have gone well out of fashion.
I liked that :-)

[DEN53]

Hi Salla - I think letter writing has gone out of fashion full stop.

I notice now, people start sentances with But and don't use full stops - you would have got a rap on the knuckles when I was at college (back in the 70's) !!

[annie0000]

I use Regards rather than yours sincerely or faithfully

[annie0000]

...and if I like them, I might even go for Warm regards.

[angel21]

Den53 - I can normally remember which one to use for Dear Mr or Dear Sir/Madam but I couldn't remember what to use when its just Dear Joe Bloggs - found out its yours sincerely.

Yes it is funny how the letter format and address layout has changed - it wasn't that long ago at all that we wrote addresses unaligned/staggered.

Lots of people seem to have dropped the commas as well for example after Dear Sirs or after each line of an address they don't use a comma - I'm not with the times yet on this one as I still use commas.

Stewey - I've never had a letter ending just 'Sincerely' at the end.

I do sometimes use: - Kind regards, regards, Many thanks