If you start an e-mail 'Dear Sir/Madam', how do you end it?

[FarrowAndBollock]

Is it 'Yours faithfully' like a letter? Or can you use something else?

I also keep finding myself writing to e-mails where it seems to be a bit off to put 'To whom it may concern', but 'yours faithfully' seems a bit formal. What do you use?

Thanks.

If you think 'Yours Faithfully' is too formal, why not put 'Kindest Regards' or something similar - I put this on all my work emails

If you are going to be formal at the beginning then it would be good to stay formal all the way through and end with Yours Faithfully which I is the correct way.
But emails aren't usually as formal so I wouldn't put dear... at the top and would sign off with Kind Regards

But no capital on faithfully in 'Yours faithfully' or regards in 'Kind regards'.

I would use Yours faithfully (as email correspondence is just another way of sending a letter).

You can shorten that to just Yours (which looks better on a letter, if you are topping and tailing by hand, but should still work in print).

Thank you. Kaluki I would like to put 'Dear' but can't if I don't know who I am writing to.

I was taught 'Yours faithfully' for formal things. 'Yours sincerely' for informal. Don't know if I'm right or wrong.

Yours faithfully if you start sir/madam as you don't know them. Yours sincerely if you start Dear Mr Smith of whatever.

I usually use 'best wishes' or 'BW' for emails as they don't sound quite so formal. For friends i just sign my name with an x after it eg Mirry2x

fuchzia thanks for that.

It's yours faithfully if you don't know their name and yours sincerely if you do

imo best wishes, regards etc are for people you have already communicated with, not for a first time contact.

It's the difference between meeting someone for the first time, shaking their hand and saying "pleased to meet you" and meeting someone for the first time, slapping them on the arse and saying "wotcha"

We are told at work not to use the antiquated 'Sir/Madam'.

We have to use 'Sirs' which I think is now considered unisex.

I consider it sexist, tbh assumption that the person is male / default is male.

really, there's not much excuse for sir/madam when it takes 2 minutes to pick up the phone and get a contact name.

If someone sent an email to me starting Sirs, I'd kill it.

I would start an email with "Hello" and finish with "Kind regards".

Young people seem to start their emails with 'Hey' or 'hiya'.

that drives me up the wall.

But then, I also get the catsbum face if a child calls me Hecate instead of Mrs Harshpants.

I'm clearly a grumpy old lady but I like rules in social conduct.

I like the rules we had, I should say. Not this rewriting of perfectly good social rules that the upstart whippersnappers seem to be doing.

I always thought that when you start with Dear Sir/Madam without an actual name you could sign off, just 'faithfully' or sincerely and when you put Dear Mr X/Ms X then you could sign off 'yours faithfully' or 'yours sincerely'. is that wrong then?

I was taught faithfully when you are requesting something, sincerely when you are stating something. But I'd use neither on an email, I used Kind regards, or Best regards. KR and BR make my fillings itch as I find it similar to txt spk. Eurgh.

Crazyscientist - yes, that is wrong. And Kitbit, also wrong. I cannot believe how many people are taught this incorrectly.

if you know the persons name then you finish with sincerely
if you don't know their name then you finish with faithfully

you should NEVER write sir/maDAM
it's horrid

You must never be sincere to a sir - that's how I remember it

Yours faithfully because you can't be sincere to someone you don't know. Well that's what we were taught in school.

Me too!

If I was sending a formal email, I would start it with Dear Sir/Madam, if I did not know their name and end it with ' Kind Regards'then my name. Personally, I never use faithfully or sincerely in an email, like I used to when sending people/organisations letters in the good old days before the internet!

I can not remember why!