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Informal letter

Tips

1. Aunque en las cartas informales uno se

puede permitir más licencias que en las formales (expresiones informales del

lenguaje hablado, contracciones, abreviaturas, etc...), hay algunas normas que

tener en cuenta:

a) Elige la fórmula de saludo apropiada. No

es lo mismo escribir a un amigo íntimo, que a tu pareja o que a ese amigo de

una amiga que vive en Londres, al cual apenas conoces pero que vas a visitar

por encargo de tu amiga. Es decir, habría que valorar el grado de confianza que

tienes con el destinatario y así decidirte por alguna de estas fórmulas: Hello Paul, Hi Jane, Dear Stephen, To my beloved, My dearest...

b) Cuida la estructura:

- En el primer párrafo se expresa

brevemente la razón por la cual escribes (aceptar una invitación, contestar a

su carta, disculparte...).

- En el cuerpo de la carta se desarrollan

los temas en dos o tres párrafos, evita presentar las ideas en un largo

párrafo.

- En el párrafo final se concluye dando

las gracias o pidiendo una pronta respuesta, etc, dependiendo de la naturaleza

de la carta.

c) Elige la fórmula de

despedida adecuada siempre acorde con la de saludo. Por ejemplo, no uses Love o Yours si el destinatario no es

de tu círculo más íntimo. Hay fórmulas más neutrales como: Best, All the best, Regards, Best regards, Best wishes, o si la carta es

semi-informal, Sincerely o incluso Faithfully.

d) No abuses del slang o de expresiones coloquiales, tampoco de

las contracciones. Podría afectar a la inteligibilidad y la coherencia del

texto. También habría que valorar aquí el grado de confianza con tu

interlocutor a la hora de utilizar ciertas expresiones.

Ejemplos de Informal Letter

Hey Sis,

It was so wonderful to

hear from you and to know that you have enjoyed your honeymoon abroad. I am

thrilled to share my own vacation experience with you, since I know you, of all

people, love to hear about travelling and unusual places. So, this time, Casey

and I went to Sri Lanka–a magnificent island with incredible traditions and

ravishing nature.

To start with, going to

Sri Lanka was never actually part of the plan. Our aim was Laos, but my

fiancé’s colleague just came back from Sri Lanka and literally talked us into

changing our plans. Well, I have to say we are very grateful, since this was,

without any exaggeration, the best vacation I have ever had. It was something

between Thailand, with its gorgeous culture and Goa, with its perfect beaches,

but at the same time, Sri Lanka was so different and unique that I shouldn’t

really compare it to anywhere else I’ve been.

The weather was another

perfect aspect of our overall great vacation. It isn’t too hot in Sri Lanka

this time of the year–just comfortably warm and sunny most of the time, so we

could fully enjoy the beach and were also able to travel around the island a

bit. The nature in Sri Lanka is just so magical and virgin, it almost made me

feel like a Mowgli in the jungle. And guess what else I saw?! A real tea

plantation, just like those we see in Lipton commercials, only far more

beautiful. I was also surprised to find out that they only grow black tea on

the island, but one of really nice quality. By the way, I’ve got a souvenir tea

package waiting for you, so make sure to pick it up when you and John come back

from your honeymoon.

Well, babes, I gotta get

going. I hope you and John enjoy the rest of your honeymoon just as much as you

have enjoyed it so far.

Casey and I will be

waiting for both of you to come over for dinner once you get back from your

trip.

Love you Sis!

Yours,

Jen

Useful Phrases for Informal Letters

On this page we will look at some

useful phrases for informal letters (PET Writing Part 3).

Phrases

In the Part 3 Writing task you have the

choice of writing an informal letter. Using contractions like 'I'm' instead of

'I am' or 'she's' instead of 'she is' will help create an informal style.

Contract the words in brackets in the following letter:

The words and expressions below are

often used by native speakers when writing to friends and relatives. Using them

will help you write in an informal style and will also help you organise your

letter into clear paragraphs.

Starting your letter

(Paragraph 1)

Thanks for your letter.

Lovely to hear from you.

How are you?

How are things?

Hope you're well.

Commenting on something (Paragraph 1)

I'm sorry to hear/learn ...

I'm so pleased to hear ...

It's great to hear ...

What wonderful news about ...

Moving the topic on (Paragraph 2)

Anyway, the reason I'm writing ...

I thought I'd write to tell/ask you

Anyway, I was wondering ...

Ending your letter (Paragraph 3)

Well, that's all for now

Write back soon

Looking forward to hearing from you again

All the best

Best wishes

See you soon

Take care

Yours

Love

Lots of love

How to write informal letters

or emails

Salutation or Greeting

Start

with Dear followed by the first name of the

person to whom you are writing. In emails, you can also start with Hi (and

the person's name). Dear Ben,

or Hi

Ben,

(Don't forget to use only the first name of the person you are writing to

and not Dear Mr John, which

is never used, or Dear Mr John Brown,

which sounds too formal.)

Informal

letters sometimes have a comma after the person's name, and the letter

starts on the line below. The important thing is to be consistent with the

style that you choose to use (so if you use a comma after the person's

name at the start of the letter, use a comma after the closing statement

at the end).

Body

Openings

When writing an informal

letter, you are usually replying to another letter. You would normally

start with a greeting, then acknowledge the letter to which

you are replying. It is often a good idea to acknowledge some

key information given in the original letter too. You can also make a comment

on your own reply.

Useful phrases for the opening

How

are you? / How have the family been? / I hope you are well.

Thank

you / Many thanks for your (recent/last) letter / postcard.

It

was good / nice / great to hear from you again.

I

was so surprised to hear that...

I’m

sorry I haven’t written / haven't been in touch for such a long time.

It’s

ages since I’ve heard from you. I hope you're well / you and your family

are well.

How

are things? / How are you? / How’s it going?

Other useful phrases

Referring to news

Great

news about … Glad to hear that … Sorry to hear about …

Giving news

Listen,

did I tell you about …? You’ll never believe what …

Oh,

and another thing … This is just to let you know that …

I

thought you might be interested to hear about / know that …

By

the way, have you heard about / did you know that …?

Apologies

I’m

writing to apologise for missing your party but I’m afraid I was with flu.

I’m

really sorry that I forgot to send you a birthday card but I was busy with

my new job.

Invitations

I’m

/ We’re having a party on Friday 19th and I / we hope you’ll be able to

come.

Would

you like to come / go to see ‘Room With a View’ with me at the weekend?

I

was wondering if you’d like to go to the theatre / come on holiday with

us.

Could

you let me / us know if you can come / you’d like to join us?

Thank

you very much for your invitation. I’d love to come.

Thank

you for asking / inviting me to … but I’m afraid I won’t be able to …

Requests

I’m

writing to ask for your help / you (if you could do me) a favour.

I

wonder if / I was wondering if you could help me / do me a favour.

I

hope you don’t mind me asking but could you (possibly) …?

I’d

be very / really / terribly grateful if you could …

Thank you / Congratulations /

Good Luck

I’m

writing to thank you for your hospitality / the wonderful present.

It

was so kind of you to invite me to stay with you.

I

really appreciated all your help / advice.

Congratulations

on passing your exams / your excellent exam results!

I

wish you good luck / Good luck in / with your exams / your driving test /

your interview.

Don’t

worry, I’m sure you’ll do well / pass.

Do

be on time, won’t you, and don’t forget to …

Making suggestions and

recommendations

Why

don’t you …? / Maybe you could …? / How about …?

You

can’t leave New York without (...doing sth)

I’m

sure you will enjoy (...doing sth). If you like, we can …

Do

visit ... / Don’t forget to ...

Closing

The end of your letter is as

important as the beginning. There are some standard ways of finishing an

informal letter or email.

Give a reason why you're ending the letter: Anyway, I must go and get on with my

work! / I guess it's time I got on with that studying I've been avoiding.

Send greetings and/or make reference for future

contact:

Give my love / regards to... / Say hello to... / Anyway, don't forget to

let me know the dates of the party. / I'll try and phone you at the

weekend to check the times. / We must try and meet up soon. / I can't wait

to hear from you / Look forward to seeing you again / Hope to hear from

you soon / See you soon / Write soon

Closing statement such as Love, Lots of love, All the best, Take care, Best wishes, should be written on a new line. If you used a comma

after the opening greeting, use a comma here too.

Signing off: Your first name then follows on another new line.

Other things to consider

Range: It is important that you use grammatical

expressions and vocabulary appropriate to the level of the exam. Even if there

are no mistakes in your writing, you will not be able to get a good grade if

you use only the language and vocabulary that you learnt at elementary level.

Even in informal writing, there is a good range of language you can use

(conditional sentences, a range of perfect and continuous tenses, indirect

questions...)

Informal language, including

phrasal verbs, informal vocabulary ("I

guess you loved the pics"), contractions, question tags.

Simpler sentence structure: I’ll be late for the party.

It’s because of my French exam.

Connectors: All

good writing makes good use of connectors. However, many of the connectors you

have learnt for other styles of writing are inappropriate in an informal letter

or email. For informal writing, you need to use

some of the connectors that are more specific to spoken language.

§ To

introduce a topic: Well, you'll never guess

who I bumped into yesterday. / I know how much you love tennis, so I've got us some tickets to Wimbledon.

/ By the way,

did you know that John's got a new job?

§ To go

back to a previous topic: Anyway, as I was saying earlier, I really wasn't

very happy there. / Now where was I? Oh yes, I nearly forgot,

Mary asked me tell you about the cinema.

§ To

introduce surprising or bad news: Actually,

he came to the party after all. / I'm really sorry but I can't make it. / To tell you the truth, I don't

really like sports much.

§ To

summarise what you've already said: Anyway,

we had a really nice time in the end. / Well,

to cut a long story short, we didn't get there on time.