The ending of a letter, on the right or on the left? (2025)

This is not a language question. This is a style question, and the style has changed in recent years. Also, it varies depending on whether this is a "friendly" letter or a "business" letter.

This is outside the scope of this forum.

cyberpedant said:

In the days of handwriting and the mechanical typewriter, I was taught to put the complimentary close (e.g., "Yours truly,") and the signature a bit right of center.
This doesn't seem to be the universal standard in the present day of email, but at least some printed letters continue to use the "right of center" standard.

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Thank you for your info.

Sparky Malarky said:

This is not a language question. This is a style question, and the style has changed in recent years. Also, it varies depending on whether this is a "friendly" letter or a "business" letter.

This is outside the scope of this forum.

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What do you mean by friendly and business？ Can you illustrate a bit more? Thanks. I thought as long as it is a question about English, I can ask it here. My bad.

I think this is well within the scope of the forum, no?

In Britain, when typewriters were used, people used to indent the first line of paragraphs by one tab (about 5 spaces). This meant that "Yours sincerely" and the signature were indented slightly - but

aligned to the right.

Nowadays, the style in most British correspondence is to 'block left'. This means that all lines including the first one begin at the left of the page, and this includes letter endings. The thread you are reading is blocked left, and paragraphs are indicated by a double carriage return.

(Other countries have different habits; I know that the French place signatures at the centre of the page, even when everything else is blocked left.)

Okay, I was afraid the moderators would object, but I gues not. My apologies, Vinci.

A "friendly" letter is informal, such as you would write to your friends or family. Of course, who writes letters anymore?

A "business" letter is more formal and is used to conduct business.

Different rules apply. For example the greeting in a friendly letter is followed by a comma, like so --

Dear Mary,

In a business letter, a colon is used, like so --

Dear Sir or Madam:

Note that Egmont and Sparky are both describing

practice. Vinci61, you haven't told us whether you want to follow British or US standards...?

Formal letters that I have looked at have the closing at the left margin.
Formal letters that I have created have the closing somewhat indented, but still left of centre.
I don't believe I have ever seen a letter with the closing right-aligned. That would appear very strange to me.

It possible, find out what the house style is for the organisation you are writing for.
If you are writing as an individual to an organisation, try to find out what that organisation's house style is.

cyberpedant said:

In the days of handwriting and the mechanical typewriter, I was taught to put the complimentary close (e.g., "Yours truly,") and the signature a bit right of center.
This doesn't seem to be the universal standard in the present day of email, but at least some printed letters continue to use the "right of center" standard.

Click to expand...

The left-aligned but indented to just right of centre style is the way I was taught at school. Having said that, I can't recall actually seeing it or using it in formal correspondence (whether this says more about letter styles or my memory span is debatable). It is still used for hand-written closings though.

Vinci, I suggest you do a search under 'block style', 'semi block style' and 'modified block style'. There are several styles available for letters. Here's Wikipedia on business letters:

Business letters conform to generally one of six indentation formats: Standard, Open, Block, Semi-Block, Modified Block, and Modified Semi-Block. Put simply, "Semi-" means that the first lines of paragraphs are indented; "Modified" means that the sender's address, date, and closing are significantly indented.

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The full block style has everything starting on the left margin with no indentation for any element.

The semi block or modified block has indentations for paragraphs, and the sender's address, date and the closing start from around the centre of the page.