Practical English Usage
English grammar and vocabulary exercises
Formal and informal speech and writing
Formal speech and writing is sometimes different from informal speech and writing. In English there are certain words and structures which are mostly used in formal situations. There are also certain words and structures for informal situations.
Use of Contraction
Contracted auxiliary verbs and negatives are common in informal speech and writing. They are not normally used in formal situations.
Use of prepositions
Prepositions can come at the end of certain structures in informal language. This is not possible in formal language.
Use of relative pronouns
In informal speech, the relative pronoun can be dropped when it is the object of the clause.
You can usually decide whether a relative pronoun is an object because it is normally followed by another subject + verb.
Use of determiners
Some determiners are followed by singular verbs in formal language and plural verbs in informal language.
Informal use of object forms
In informal English, we use object forms not only as the objects of verbs and prepositions, but also in most other cases where the words do not come before the verbs as their subjects. Object forms are common, for example in one-word answers and after be.
In a more formal style, we often use subject form + verb.
It is possible to use a subject form after be, but this is extremely formal, and is usually considered over-correct.
Whom in questions
Whom is not often used in informal English. We prefer to use who as an object, especially in questions.
We use whom in a more formal style; and we must use whom after a preposition.
Ellipsis (leaving out words) is more common in informal language.
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Last updated on August 4, 2007|
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