letter closing

[chance22]

I have seen different letter closings used in different situations. But I'm not clear about how to make a choice.

For example, is it OK for me to use "Always yours," to a friend of mine? Or is it only limited to those love letters to a boyfriend or a girlfriend, as is pointed out by someone online? Is "Truly yours" an obsolete one? Are there difference between Sincerely yours and Yours sincerely? And what are the most commonly used closings for business letters, love letters(here I mean letters to a love), letters to family members and letters to friends respectively? Looking forward to your answer and thank you very much.

 

[emsr2d2]

I have seen different letter closings used in different situations. But I'm not clear about how to make a choice.

For example, is it OK for me to use "Always yours," to a friend of mine? Or is it only limited to those love letters to a boyfriend or a girlfriend, as is pointed out by someone online? Is "Truly yours" an obsolete one? Are there difference between Sincerely yours and Yours sincerely? And what are the most commonly used closings for business letters, love letters(here I mean letters to a love), letters to family members and letters to friends respectively? Looking forward to your answer and thank you very much.

In business letters, the most common endings are:

Yours sincerely (when you know the name of the person you're writing to)
Yours faithfully (when you don't know the name and have addressed it "Dear Sir/Madam)

Yours truly has definitely gone out of fashion in BrE, as far as I know.

With letters to good friends, there are many choices and they're very personal:

love from (probably not common in a letter between two males)
lots of love (probably not common in a letter between two males)
See you soon
Take care
Be good!
Cheers
Bye for now

With love letters, again it's very personal but some options are:

Forever yours
Yours eternally
With all my love

I hope those help.

 

[chance22]

Thank you，emsr2d2. Those are very useful for me. I'm really grateful to always get help from people like you whenever there is a problem with my English learning. And one more question: What about "Yours" used only and "Always yours"? What category do they fall into? Are they commonly used?

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you，emsr2d2. Those are very useful for me. I'm really grateful to always get help from people like you whenever there is a problem with my English learning. And one more question: What about "Yours" used only and "Always yours"? What category do they fall into? Are they commonly used?

I wouldn't use "Always yours" in any category, personally.

"Yours" on its own, to me, is a somewhat terse ending to a letter where perhaps the person does not want to be quite as polite as normal, so doesn't use "Yours sincerely/faithfully".

 

[bertietheblue]

Just to add, it is common to write 'Kind Regards' or possibly 'Regards' in formal business emails - in fact, where I work, every email has an automatic 'Kind Regards' signature placed at the end - unless the email is in the form of a letter, in which case I would stick with Yours sincerely/Yours faithfully, as appropriate.

When I email a client, I stick with 'Kind Regards' but when I email my boss or colleagues I tend to write 'Cheers' (which is very informal) or 'All the best'. And one of my colleagues always replies to me with 'Best wishes' at the end.

 

[chance22]

Thank emsr2d2 and bertietheblue very much. I've learned a lot.