Verbs – Informal & Formal

Formal English: We use it when writing essays for school, cover letters to apply for jobs, or emails and letters at work.

Informal English: We use it with friends, children, and relatives.

The following list will help you to recognize the informal and formal ways of saying the same thing. The list is divided into sections of: verbs, transitions, emphasis words, abbreviations, and slang.

Informal Formalsay sorry apologize, apologise

go up increasego down decrease

set up establishlook at examine

blow up explodefind out discover

bring about causeput off postpone, delayrack up accumulate

make up fabricatestand for representfind out discover, ascertain

leave out omitpoint out indicatego against oppose

get in touch with contactIt’s about It concerns, It’s in regards to

need to requiredthink about consider

Get obtainput up tolerate

deal with handleSeem appearShow demonstrate, illustrate, portrayStart commenceKeep retain

Free releaseget on someone’s nerves bother

ring up callshow up arrive

Let Permitfill in substitute, informBlock Undermine

give the go ahead, greenlight authorize, authorize

Transitions – Informal & Formal

Informal FormalAnyways NeverthelessPlus/Also Moreover/ Furthermore

But HoweverSo Therefore/Thus

Also In addition, AdditionallyASAP as soon as possible/at your earliest

convenienceOkay, OK acceptable

In the meantime In the interimI think In my opinion,

In the end, FinallyTo sum up In conclusion,

In a nutshell/Basically To summarize,Anyway, NotwithstandingAll right Acceptable

Well,To top it all off,On top of it all,

In order to

Emphasis Words – Informal & FormalInformal Formal

lots of/ a lot of much, manytons of, heaps of large quantities of, a number of

totally completely, stronglyreally, very definitely

Letter Expressions – Informal & FormalInformal Formal

Hi Robert, Dear Sir or MadamJust wanted to let you know… I am writing to inform you…

Love, Yours sincerely, Yours faithfully,Cheers,

Yours Truly, Best regards, kind regards

Hope to hear from you soon I look forward to hearing from youYou can call me if you need anything Please do not hesitate to contact me

Abbreviations – Informal & Formal

Informal FormalASAP as soon as possibleT.V. Television

photo Photographcell cell phonenet Internet

Slang – Informal & Formal

Informal Formalkids Childrenbad Negative

good Positivereally big considerable

right Correctwrong Incorrectsmart Intelligentcheap inexpensiveloaded Rich