"Yours sincerely" or "Your sincerely"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi all,

I am not sure which is correct, but I often see some people end a formal letter with
“Yours sincerely”, while some “Your sincerely”.

Is there difference between “Yours sincerely” and “Your sincerely”?
Which is the correct one?

Please help clarify!

Thank you

Kitty

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2

Hi,
If u know someone to whom u write,u must use “Yours sincerely”.
If not,“Yours faithfully”.
Regards,
Morteza

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3

Thanks for the help, Morteza!

I wonder if there are alternatives (other good words)
to “Yours sincerely” when writing to someone I know,
say my teacher, the headmaster of my previous school.

Thanks!

Kitty

4

Hi Morteza,

Can you please do yourself and others a favor and spell the word ‘u’ correctly? Is this especially important when you answer other forum users’ grammar and vocabulary questions because they are here to improve their English. When they constantly see words spelled incorrectly they will pick up the incorrect spelling and start making those mistakes too.

Many thanks,
Torsten

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5

Hi Kwfine,

The usual practice is to end a letter with ‘Yours sincerely’ if you have started with the person’s name as in: Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Jones’. If you don’t know the name of the person to whom you are writing and address them as: Dear Sir/Madam’, you would end the letter: ‘Yours faithfully’.

Alan

6

Dear Moterza,
Thank you very much for your useful lessions. I d like to ask you what is differrent between material, equipment and tool. How do I use these words. Thanks so much

Yours sincerely,
Mary

7

Mary,

My more “dictionary” explanation would be that they are obviously all be nouns. The first distinction I would make between the 3 words is that material should not be thought to be similar to equipment and tools, even depending on context usually only the latter two are used interchangeably (unless you have seen or heard of an example).

So starting with material; normal everyday usage it generally provides the meaning/impression of something that is raw or parts of a product that is yet-to-be-made — and normally referring to things that are fabric/natural in nature (clothing, furniture or house decorations etc.). Having said this, we also commonly refer “material” as an abstract resources; the likes of “schooling materials (textbooks, workbooks or sometimes evensome of the facilities that the school provides)”

E.g. you normally ask a salesperson regarding the origin of a furniture piece and he/she would answer you in terms of “material” — the type of animal skin/wood that is used to make that product. Never do you ask “what such and such equipment/tool is this made of ?”

As far as equipment and tools is concerned, if we consider sports “equipment” and “tools” are the necessary “things” that allow us to perform a specific task. For instance, to play soccer we need goals and a ball or other activities then you would need various other objects: paddles, swimsuit/goggles, appropriate clothing just to name a few. We also usually use these references when we want describe objects that are more “industrialised” (not sure if this is the right word to use but…) in nature. For example, factory machineries, computers, printers, chairs, tables (personally I think my explanation is rather ambiguous but I guess this is somewhat how languages are anyway).

In my opinion, as a general assumption, it should be relatively safe to relate the usage of material as “products” of non-mechanical things and equipment/tools to mechanical objects.

Hope this helps,

Leaderofrogue

8

Hi Alan,

Is it also possible to say ‘Yours Truly’ or not?

Thanks.

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9

Hi,

Yes. that’s all right. Remember that ‘truly’ will have the ‘t’ in lower case.

Alan

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10

Is there any difference between ‘Yours sincerely’ and ‘Sincerely yours’ for writing personal letters and business letters ?
Which one is more formal, or popular ?

Best regards,

Nick

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11

hi friends!
this hakeem Hakeemi the now comer in this fourm, i’m soo happy that i’m joining to you people and hope to be here for ever and ever.
you 9 i’m poor of English and can not write something withe bobobs i mean mistake
please tel me the best way how to aviod form this problem and have spell mistake alot
and im trying my best to learn form you people if you help me to send me some matirails…

thanks friends
cheers…

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12

Hi Nick,

I would say that ‘Yours sincerely’ is the more traditional way of ending a personal/informal letter. ‘Sincerely yours’ sounds to me somewhat affected. But of course that’s just my personal view.

Alan

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13

The phrase ‘your sincerely’ does not exist in English.

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14

Hi
Some peeps write “yours sincerely” and some write “your’s sincerely”.kindly help me to find the right one.

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15

Both phrases are correct and acceptable. “Yours sincerely” is British while “Sincerely yours” is American. However, we don’t use ‘kindly’ but ‘please’ when making a request and instead of ‘peeps’ you need to write ‘some people’.

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16

Thanks for correction…

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17

Thanks for the correction/Thanks for your correction.

You’re welcome :wink:

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