Which expressions can be used to close an email? [closed]
Putting formal salutations and complimentary closes into an e-mail tends to make them very formal compared to most e-mails.
In my experience working in the software industry, people who always put them into ordinary business e-mails come off as unnecessarily formal. Often foreigners have been taught in English class to do this, and the result is that I have been in meetings where foreign colleagues were ridiculed for e-mails constructed to a ceremonious level of formality.
I've just looked through my most recently sent business e-mails and the only complimentary close I ever use is "thanks", in about a quarter of my e-mails—mostly ones where I've asked the recipient to do something. The rest of them just end with a dash and my name. Looking through my received business e-mails, I see the same. Most e-mails have no complimentary close, and of the ones that do, nearly all of them have "thanks" or similar ("many thanks", "thank you", "thanks all", etc.). I got one "regards" in the last week as well (out of about 250 messages).
Your experience may vary, I suppose, depending on the culture of the company you work for.
A colleague of mine uses an e-mail template that begins every e-mail with "Heyas," and closes with "Humbly". He is a quirky fellow.
My personal recommendation (at least when corresponding via e-mail for business with Americans) is to err on the side of no complimentary close, or a very informal one. Using a formal complimentary close marks an e-mail as extremely serious and if used on an e-mail that is not extremely serious will make it seem out of place or even funny.
For informal e-mails:
Best, or
Regards, or
Cheers,
For formal e-mails:
Kind regards, or
Respectfully, or
Sincerely,
Business Email/Letter Closings:
- Best regards,
- Cordially,
- Good wishes,
- Many thanks,
- Most sincerely,
- Regards,
- Sincerely,
- Thank you,
- With confidence.
Informal Email/Letter Closings:
- Adios,
- Blessings,
- Cheerio,
- Cheers,
- God bless,
- Gotta boogie,
- Grace and peace,
- Have fun,
- Health and happiness,
- Keep the faith,
- Later Vader,
- Later alligator,
- Lots of love,
- Onward and upward,
- Over and out,
- Peace, love & happiness,
- Peace & blessings,
- Rock on,
- See ya,
- Smell ya later,
- SMILE,
- TA TA,
- Toodles,
- Your friend,
- Dream BIG.
Ref: http://languagelearningbase.com/257/how-to-end-emails
"Yours sincerely" and "Yours faithfully" now sound somewhat formal and I'd advise against them unless your email is otherwise official or formal in nature.
"Best regards" (or just "Br") is, in my experience, extremely common in business emails, and a safe choice for many situations. "Best wishes," is also a common alternative that falls into this category.
For informal situations or when messaging friends, I'd probably go with something lighter, such as:
Cheers,
or
Take care,
:-)
I'll tend to use "Best regards," for anything even semi-formal, including correspondence with people in a business context whom I don't know very well.
When I use to work at NEC, it was considered the way you must sign off your emails when dealing with any of the Tokyo managers or engineers, and so it kind of just stuck.
For less formal, it'll be "Thanks" if appropriate, "Take care," or occasionally "Peace and chocolate."
Never ever put it in your email signature. A colleague of mine has "Regards," in his signature and it grates every time I see it. It may save you some typing, but it comes off as disingenuous. You're better off with nothing if you can't be bothered.