FORMAL AND

INFORMAL ENGLISH
Presented by : Malak Boughout
Table of contents :
1- The differences between formal and informal language.
2- Examples.
Formal English :
 It is used when writing for professional or academic
purposes like university assignments , official
documents , news reports ,articles , business letters ,
speeches and official conversations.
We use formal language in situations that are serious or
that involve people we don't know well.
Informal English :

• Informal language is more commonly used in situations that are

more relaxed and involve people we know well.
• It is used when communicating with friends or family either in
writing or in conversation.
• It is also used in social media and personal writing.
Formal English :
 Formal language is characterized by the use of more complex sentence
structures, infrequent use of personal pronouns such as 'I' or 'We‘.
 Formal language does not use colloquialisms or slang terms such as ”y'all” or
“gonna” or “wanna”.
 It does not use contractions such as “he’d” , “ I’ve ”.
 Formal English uses correct grammar ,more advanced vocabulary.
 Informal English :
 Informal language allows the use of nonstandard English forms,
colloquial vocabulary and typically shorter sentence structures.
 It is not always correct regarding grammar and choice of words.
 A huge number of words and phrases are used mainly in informal
English. For example: “dude, uh-huh, nope (= no), to puke, grownup,
awesome, to chill out, stuff, hard-up, to tick somebody off, to sell like
crazy ” .
Summary:
 Examples:

• Formal: Good morning! How are you?  Formal: I would like to apologize for any
• inconvenience caused.
Informal: Hey how's it going?
 Informal: Sorry!

 Formal: They will be attending the meeting

tomorrow.  Formal: I want to pass my English exam
tomorrow.
 Informal: They’ll attend the meeting
tomorrow.  Informal: I wanna pass my English exam
tomorrow.
Examples: :