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Liu jian Posted 23 years ago
Letter Writing

Question about the business letter

At the beginning of a letter, could I say "Thanks a lot" instead of " Thank you very much". I found almost in all of the samples, they just use the sentence"Thank you very much", but not the phrase "Thanks a lot" at the beginning.

Could I say" Thanks a lot and please forward my best wishs to (sb)". Do I need a commar here or just make it be " Thanks a lot and best wishs to (sb)"? Make them symmetric, I mean.
  

Top answer

Hi Liu Jian, Actually there's nothing wrong with Thanks a lot , it's just that in business letters people usually want to sound more formal; Thanks a lot is more colloquial and is usually avoided unless you know the person you're writing to very well, and want to make your letter sounds more personal.

— Orpheus

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5 Answers

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Hi Liu Jian,

Actually there's nothing wrong with Thanks a lot, it's just that in business letters people usually want to sound more formal; Thanks a lot is more colloquial and is usually avoided unless you know the person you're writing to very well, and want to make your letter sounds more personal.
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Please also note that in some English dialects, South African for instance, thanks a lot is often used sarcastically to mean thanks for nothing, like thanks a bunch.
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I'd agree with Orpheus, it could be easily thought of as sarcastic!
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In a business letter the best way of saying "best wishes" is Please pass my regards on to ------
Unless you know the person you are writing to very well its best to remain formal.
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You can say and start as:-

Thanks and please forward my best wishs to (sb)"
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