Can you use Dear Sir or Madome in a formal letter to a Goverment dept

[soulman101]

My wife has to write a letter to the state pension dept.
In the crazy world of woke , is this still acceptable .

[phild]

No probs Lloyd you CAN still address your letter thus;

If you know the persons name you can write DEAR MR/MS SMITH

Or, DEAR SIR/MADAM

End your letter like this

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, end with “Yours sincerely”, if not, end with “Yours Faithfully"
and then sign your name

[soulman101]

No probs Lloyd you CAN still address your letter thus;

If you know the persons name you can write DEAR MR/MS SMITH

Or, DEAR SIR/MADAM

End your letter like this

If you know the name of the person you are writing to, end with “Yours sincerely”, if not, end with “Yours Faithfully"
and then sign your name

Thanks Phil , what a crazy world we live in.
We have always used Dear Sir or Madam but nowadays it could be a bloke who thinks he is a her or visa versa , or even more weird someone who identify's as a frog etc. , who opens the letter.

[phild]

As you don't know the person you are writing to then the ridiculous personal pronoun nonsense is not an issue

[SCOOP115]

I'm amazed these days how an increasing number of people think it's acceptable to use "text speak" in formal correcpondence

[Omegstrat6]

I'm amazed these days how an increasing number of people think it's acceptable to use "text speak" in formal correcpondence

I'd be very surprised if kids these days were taught the art of formal letter writing as per phild/Soulman's posts.

[Leicesterbaggie]

I'd be very surprised if kids these days were taught the art of formal letter writing as per phild/Soulman's posts.

As a retired PE/English teacher, you could well be correct in your assumption.

[SCOOP115]

As a retired PE/English teacher, you could well be correct in your assumption.

I was taught at college the correct form of writing letters for business. Something thats stuck with me for over 50 years

[9goals2hattricks3pen]

I can assure you Primary school children are taught how to write correctly. This is just one question from this year's SATS tests for year 6 11 year olds. I think my grammar and punctuation is OK but a large portion of these I couldn't even begin to guess at

Complete the following sentence with an appropriate subordinating conjunction

______ football is his favourite sport, James also enjoys watching tennis on TV.

Where the problems start is kids hearing their heroes such as rappers, reality stars and even BBC presenters saying innit and my own pet hate I hear every Saturday from ex footballers 'that's what I done' when they mean did.

Not knowing how to speak or presumably write properly hasn't held them back.

Just this very second heard a TV presenter say '"There not doing good"

Shakes head.