Faithfully Sincere..?

[Colin Woods]

Can someone help..? When writing Yours Faithfully (or Sincerely) should these be written with a capital..? The Formal Letter section shows this.

[nemesisage]

The way you wrote is perfect....I think It should be always like "Yours Faithfully or Yours Sincerely"....well I would still like to check with teachers here though...

[Colin Woods]

Thanks nemesisage...I'm still not sure though..!

[Casiopea]

Welcome, Colin and Nemesisage.

Capitalize the first word of the salutation of a letter and the first word of a complimentary close:

< Dear Mary, >
< Gentlemen: >
< Sincerely yours, >
< Yours sincerely, >

Source: Webster Dictionary's Handbook of Style.

[Colin Woods]

Thanks Casiopea (great name!) I am reassured. Just a point, but in the Letter Writng section of this site, if you 'hover' your cursor over the complimentary close, it shows as a capital..!

Thanks anyway.

[Casiopea]

... in the Letter Writng section of this site, if you 'hover' your cursor over the complimentary close, it shows as a capital! [e.g., Sincerely Yours]

Thank you for bringing that to our attention, Colin. I've notified our editor. Let's see what he can suggest.

As for the reason writers today capitalize both words in the "phrase" Yours Sincerely, it may have to do with consistency. The opening is always capitalized; e.g., Dear Sam; To Whom It May Concern; Hello Max; and so on. So by analogy it seems that writers carry that style over to the closing; e.g., Yours Sincerely.

Hope that helps some.

[nemesisage]

Thanks Buddy!!!

[MrPedantic]

It's the same in British English:

"Yours sincerely"
"Yours faithfully"
"Best wishes"

etc.

are the correct versions.

(Many native speakers do however capitalize both words, especially in emails. I can only think it's to compensate for the absence of capital letters in the rest of the message.)

All the best,

MrP