Yours Sincerely vs Yours Faithfully
Since there has always been a confusion in the usages of yours sincerely and yours faithfully, it is good to know the difference between yours sincerely and yours faithfully. What should be used and when has been a topic of discussion when it comes to the art of letter writing. It is for sure that yours sincerely differs from yours faithfully in usage. Letter writing is a very important form of communication that needs to be followed with great care. It is true that personal letter writing is not much done these days, but still business letter writing is very much in use. In such situations knowing what to use, yours sincerely or yours faithfully, is of great importance. Therefore, this article attempts to explain to you clearly when to use which.
What does Yours Faithfully mean?
Yours faithfully should be used in signing off after writing to someone whom you do not know or have not met. You normally begin with letter with the greeting dear sir or madam. This is when the recipient is not addressed by his/ her name.
What does Yours Sincerely mean?
On the other hand, if you are writing to someone whom you have met before or whom you have known for quite some time, then you can begin the letter with the greeting dear Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms and end the letter signing off as yours sincerely. The word sincerely has much to do with your association with the person with whom you are corresponding. In other words, it can be said that if you have met the person with whom you correspond or spoken to him/ her over phone or was introduced by some other person to you, then you can sign off the letter using yours sincerely by employing your first name. You can address such a person by his/ her first name too. However, one must remember that yours sincerely is used for friendly yet not intimate letters.
It is quite interesting to note that letter writing experts would say that the usage of regards in the place of yours sincerely is highly recommended too. This is possible because of the fact that you normally use the word regards while wishing a person known to you or the one to whom you have spoken before.
What is the difference between Yours Sincerely and Yours Faithfully?
As a matter of fact it is quite common to find the usage of sincerely yours or simply sincerely while signing off. It is also common to find the usage of yours sincerely in social correspondence and yours faithfully in official correspondence. Using of yours sincerely and yours faithfully at the end of a letter depend on whether or not the sender of the letter knows the recipient.
- Yours faithfully is used when writing to someone whom you do not know or have not met.
- Yours sincerely is used when writing to someone whom you have met before or whom you have known or spoken to over phone or was introduced by some other person.
Just keep these two simple facts in your mind and you will know exactly what to use in your next letter.