Using formal and informal langauge in English
LikeIf you´re taking English lessons or you want to learn English as a foreign language, something you may find confusing is the use of formal and informal language. It´s not as obvious as in other languages like French or Spanish when you have particular verb formations for formal and informal you. Just when you thought English couldn't get any more complicated! Trying to convert sentences from formal into informal English, or vica versa, may feel a bit of a minefield but the truth is: you probably instinctively know far more than you think.
The most obvious place to start is spoken English.
One example of informal spoken English could be "Oi mate! what's that all about then?" While it depends on the tone, it´s likely friendly and not aggressive, but could perhaps be too informal for a stranger. In formal English, the same sentence could be translated to "Excuse me, could you explain this to me please?"
Quick side note - "Can you?" asks whether you are capable of doing something whereas "could you?" asks whether you´re willing to. My brother-in-law is fond of replying to the question "Can you call my sister?" with a simple "Yes" followed by silence, while he waits for a conditional verb to his liking. When you then use "could you call my sister?", he springs into action. Anyway. (other quick sidenote: look at the informal impact of single word sentences).
Formal vs informal language
So what makes a sentence formal or informal?
1) Vocabulary: A good example that I mentioned above - "oi!" is informal and "excuse me" is formal. Try to understand if the words you are using are slang words or formal and it what contexts it´s appropriate to use them. You can always check with friends or peers who are native English speakers, or if you have a private English tutor, you can ask for a lesson in which you delve deeper into vocabulary for informal and formal cases.
2) Punctuation: Exclamation marks generally don't appear in formal writing and colons tend to be replaced by dashes. Informal punctuation is a lively place, friend to the emoji and elipsis... Notice that contractions of words like 'he's' belong in informal language, wheras, 'he is' belongs in formal language - so watch out for contractions, they're an easy way to switch between formal and informal.
3) Sentence structure: Formal English will often be constructed using longer sentences and paragraphs carefully divided into themes. Informal English, rather helpfully, sounds quite 'chatty' and can even sound like a train of thought: "So, you know that guy, what's his name? Fred, no, Terry. That's it, Terry. Anyway, I saw him the other day. No, tell a lie, I saw Fred." So when you're converting one to the other, take the sentence apart and think of your formal person saying the same thing. "You know that guy, what's his name?" could become, "are you aware of that gentleman, I'm afraid I don't know his name'. I mean, that is VERY formal, but I don't think anyone could complain that you hadn't created a formal sentence. "Fred, no, Terry. That's it, Terry''. We're not going to be changing any names to say, Bartholemew or Tarquin: the facts, the meaning of the sentence, must always be preserved, "He may be called Fred, no, in fact, I believe that he is called Terry."
If you have got to this point, I salute you and I thank you. Honestly, these things are not so scary and I hope this has been at least a bit helpful. If you need further help with mastering the English language, I´m a private English tutor offering online lessons. Please reach out for more information or an initial class.