"Formal vs Informal language"
It is common knowledge that the way people speak is determined by a given, concrete situation. The manner of speaking can be defined as “Registers” or “Styles”. The choice of appropriate register/style depends on formality, the forms of address determined by the general cultural norms of a society. Putting it in other words, you speak in different ways both to your friends and to strangers. When you are at home, you are likely to use informal language. However, you will use formal language when you run up against public situations such as being interviewed for a job. To put it simply, you can say whether people know each other well or not by listening to their way of speaking. For instance, in informal situations one may say “Gimme that”. In formal situations the expression “Would you please pass me that?” would be more suitable.

There is also a distinction between the levels of formality:
1. Intimate – informal language
2. Casual – medium language
3. Formal/Frozen – formal language

Let us now examine features that we are likely to come across when talking about formal and informal language:

FORMAL (WRITTEN ENGLISH)

- is indicated by more longer and complex sentences
- few phrasal verbs
- more past tenses
- more modals
- lack of slang and colloquial vocabulary
- words often derived from Latin
- lack of 1st person pronouns- I, you, he, we ( so-called impersonality)
- no contracted forms such as “isn’t”, “don’t” and so on and so forth
- no prepositions at the end of the sentence

INFORMAL LANGUAGE

- simpler grammar
- personal evaluation “I think”, “I believe”
- colloquial and slang vocabulary
- few/no sophisticated words

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