And this is the second episode about formal and informal English, how to identify the formal and informal words and how to use them. And when we use them. This is a follow-up of episode 13 on formal and informal English. In the last episode, I talked about Latin-based words, words which come from Latin. And that was because of the influence of the French language in English, which came about because of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. And that English then is made up of 50% of French-based words or Latin-based words as French comes mostly from the Latin language. And the other 50% are the Anglo Saxon words, which are from Germanic languages.
Now, I was saying then that these Latin-based words are more formal, and I'm going to give you a few more examples. Now, what you'll notice is that when we're talking verbs, Anglo Saxon verbs, most of them, not all of them, but a good deal of them are monosyllabic, they just have one syllable. And, often, not always, but often, the Latin-based verbs will have two syllables or more. Now, that's important because, as I'll say later in this episode, length, is often associated with more formality, length of words, and length of sentences. So we'll come to that in a little bit.
But listen to these words, and notice the difference between the Latin-based words and the Anglo Saxon verbs in this case. So,
to obtain - to get
to obtain is a Latin-based word and to get the Anglo Saxon equivalent,
to receive - to get,
to acquire - to get,
to comprehend - to get,
my goodness! [For] all those we can just use get in Anglo Saxon language, you get the impression that Anglo Saxon is simpler. Maybe it is, well, maybe it isn't. But the verbs definitely sound - well shorter.
to inform - to tell,
to provide - to give,
to reserve - to book,
to verify - to check,
to repair - to fix,
to apply for - to ask for,
to require - to need
to consider - to think about
to dispatch - to send
to regret - to be sorry
to depart - to set off
to disembark - to get off.
Now those last two are interesting aren't they? Disembark - to get off. Now, get off, we consider to be a phrasal verb. And it's true that phrasal verbs come from Anglo Saxon. And so when we use phrasal verbs, our English automatically sounds less formal, more informal. And the other one I used there was to depart - to set off. Now if I asked you as a learner, which one do you think you could learn more easily - which word - to depart, or to set off? I think you'd probably say the first - to depart. It may even even coincide with a verb in your own language, if you speak a Latin-based language and set off, well, it's not really very intuitive, is it? Phrasal verbs often aren't very intuitive.
So that's one lesson to remember that those phrasal verbs are usually quite informal. And it's also true then, that, as I just mentioned, longer words, whether they're Latin-based words, or not, are generally considered to be more formal. If I use the word but in an essay, or in a piece of writing, that will sound much more informal than if I say, however, well, that's not a Latin-based word, but is longer. Also, is less formal than furthermore. Furthermore, that's an Anglo Saxon word. And yet, it sounds more formal, just because it's longer.
I mean, where do we take this rule? How far do we take this rule? Is breakfast more formal than lunch? Well, obviously, that rule is limited. But in general, we could say that longer words tend to be more formal. And it's true as well then that longer sentences are generally more formal, whether they contain Latin-based words or not. What about this one here in an email, a business email, and here is the informal version.
I see you're interested in our new product range, but they won't be ready until next March. Sorry.
Now compare that with the more formal alternative.
I understand you have expressed an interest in our new product range. However, unfortunately, they will not be available until March of next year.
Oh, my goodness, that was a lot longer, wasn't it? But it conveyed exactly the same amount of information. Now, here's another sort of example for you, but this is a spoken example. One perhaps we might use if we're in a train, or, yes, in a train, for example, and you're sitting there and you want to do a crossword in your newspaper, or a Sudoku, or something like that. But you haven't got a pen. You've got the newspaper, but you don't have a pen. Now the gentleman in front of you, has been doing a crossword as well, but he's finished and he's put his pen down on the seat next to him. So you lean across. You could say,
Excuse me? Can I borrow your pen? Please?
I'm sure he would say yes, of course, here you are. But you know, when you're talking to a complete stranger, and ask him to borrow that pen, well, it might be better, especially if he's an English native to use a longer sentence, which will sound much more formal.
Excuse me. I'm very sorry to bother you. But I was wondering perhaps, if you wouldn't mind lending me your pen. It's just that I would love to do a crossword. I have left mine at home.
Oh, my goodness, that was very long-winded, wasn't it? Long-winded, we say - those long sentences. Maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration. But it's true that the longer the sentence the more formal and polite you sound.
So another element of formality in the English language, and this is for written English, in emails, for example, that you may have to write at work.
Re. your letter of fourth April,
there's nothing wrong with that - it's direct. And in a business email it's fine. But if you wanted to be more formal, we would take away that abbreviation, the re, which means regarding or with reference to. So we would say,
With reference to your letter of the fourth of April.
And those abbreviations like ASAP, for example, as soon as possible, would sound more informal. Now, I think it's important to point out that when we're writing business emails, it doesn't mean that we have to write in formal English. We understand these days that we don't have much time. And we can't be choosing formal words and formal expressions all the time, when we're writing business emails, at work, because neither the sender nor the receiver has a lot of time. So it's best to be a little shorter, and more concise. So these sorts of things like abbreviations are allowed. But it's important to be aware of just how formal that you're being. And if you were sending a letter of complaint, for example, my goodness, then you should be a lot more formal.
In the next episode [on formal and informal English], I'll be talking about that - letters of complaint, the language that we use to complain, which makes it sound more formal and more convincing, and may just frighten a little that person who's reading it so they take more notice of you.
Until next time, bye for now.
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