FORMAL VS INFORMAL ENGLISH
Welcome to our C1 lesson on Formal and Informal English! Understanding the distinction between both is crucial, whether you’re writing a professional email, giving a presentation, or simply chatting with friends.
Mastering both styles will enhance your ability to communicate effectively in any situation, ensuring you always strike the right tone for your audience. This lesson will help you develop a more versatile and dynamic command of English.
Introduction
Formal language is used in professional, academic, and official settings, characterized by proper grammar, complex vocabulary, and an impersonal tone. Informal language, on the other hand, is more casual, conversational, and personal, often using contractions, slang, and a relaxed style.
In the following video you will have a quick masterclass regarding this topic:
Formal vs. Informal English
Dive into the interesting differences and nuances of formal and informal English:
Learning Activities
Engage in the following activities to practice what you’ve learned throughout this lesson:
Sentence Conversion
The teacher will provide you with a list of formal and informal sentences for you to convert to the opposite register.
Examples:
INFORMAL: Can you give me a hand with this?
FORMAL REGISTER: Could you assist me with this?
FORMAL: I apologize, but I will be unable to attend the meeting.
INFORMAL REGISTER: I’m sorry, but I can’t make it to the meeting.
Remember, informal language often includes contractions, colloquialisms, and more direct or personal phrasing, while formal language typically involves precise vocabulary, technical terms, jargon, or longer, more formal expressions.
Tone Adaptation Role Play
You will pair up and be given a scenario that starts in a formal context and shifts to an informal one, or vice versa. Each pair must practice the conversation, focusing on smoothly transitioning between tones.
Sample Scenarios
- The Unexpected Guest at a Family Dinner:
- Scenario: One student is a parent who has invited their boss for a formal dinner at home. The other student is the teenage child who knows the boss from a local community sports team. The conversation starts formally but becomes more casual as they realize their common interests.
- Job Interview at a Video Game Company:
- Scenario: One student plays the role of an interviewer at a popular video game company, and the other is the interviewee, a high school student applying for an internship. The conversation starts with formal interview questions but shifts to a casual discussion about favorite video games and gaming strategies.
Jeopardy: Formal vs Informal
In groups of three, you will participate in a Jeopardy-style game to convert informal words into their formal equivalents.
Please form your groups within the next 30 seconds and choose a name for your group.
The group that organizes first will have the advantage of playing first in the Jeopardy game!