Formal and Informal words in English

Formal English:

Formal Language is like a formal dress, in a formal language you have to be careful with words, you have to choose words with respect. We use it when writing essays for school, cover letters to apply for jobs, or emails and letters at work.

Informal English:

Informal Language is the language you speak in your friend’s circle. It is used in conversation with your family and friends, informal words are also respectful words, but they are less polite as compare to formal words.

Here are Formal and Informal words List in English

1. Verbs – Informal & Formal

INFORMAL	FORMAL
a lot of	numerous
anyways	nevertheless
block	undermine
break down	fail/collapse
break up	disintegrate
bring in	introduce
can	is capable of
come back	return
come/go in	enter
deal with	handle
enjoyment	gratification
faithfulness	fidelity
find out	discover
from (company)	on the behalf of
get	obtain
get in touch with	contact
give in	yield
give the go-ahead	authorize
give/bring back	return
go against	oppose
go ahead	proceed
go away	leave/depart
go before	precede
go down	decrease
go out of	exit
go up	increase
hopeless	futile
house	residence
hungry	famished
it’s about	it concerns, it’s in regards to
keep	retain
keep up	maintain properly
lead to	cause
leave out	omit
let	permit
link up	connect
lively	energetic
look at	examine
look for	seek
look into	investigate
look like	resemble
lots of/ a lot of	much, many
make out	discern
makeup	fabricate
mend	repair
need to	required
plus/also	moreover/furthermore
point out	indicate
put in	insert
put off	postpone
put up	tolerate
put up with	tolerate
put/set down	deposit
rack up	accumulate
really big	considerable
refer to	consult
ring up	call
seem	appear
set out	display
set up	establish
settle for	choose
show	demonstrate, illustrate, portray
show up	arrive
speak to	address
stand for	represent
start	commence
take away	remove
take out	remove
talk about	discuss/consider
thanks	gratitude
think about	consider/ponder
think of	conceive
throw away	discard
throw out	eject
tired Formal and Informal words list in English Pdf	fatigued
tons of, heaps of	large quantities of, a number of
try out	test
wait for	await
whole	entire/complete
worse	inferior
say sorry	apologize, apologise

2. Transitions – Informal & Formal

Informal	Formal
Anyways	Nevertheless
Plus/Also	Moreover/ Furthermore
But	However
So	Therefore/Thus
Also	In addition, Additionally
ASAP	as soon as possible/at your earliest convenience
Okay, OK	acceptable
In the meantime	In the interim
I think	In my opinion,
In the end,	Finally
To sum up	In conclusion,
In a nutshell/Basically	To summarize,
Anyway,	Notwithstanding
All right	Acceptable
Well,
To top it all off,
On top of it all,
	In order to

3. Emphasis Words – Informal & Formal

Informal	Formal
lots of/ a lot of	much, many
tons of, heaps of	large quantities of, a number of
totally	completely, strongly
really, very	definitely

4. Letter Expressions – Informal & Formal

Informal	Formal
Hi Robert,	Dear Sir or Madam
Just 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 you
You can call me if you need anything	Please do not hesitate to contact me

5. Abbreviations – Informal & Formal

Informal	Formal
ASAP	as soon as possible
T.V.	television
photo	photograph
cell	cell phone
net	Internet

6. Slang – Informal & Formal

Informal	Formal
kids	children
bad	negative
good	positive
really big	considerable
right	correct
wrong	incorrect
smart	intelligent
cheap	inexpensive
loaded	rich

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