Formal/Informal Phrases
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Before moving on to the quizzes for this unit, have a look at the differences between some common formal and informal phrases in emails.
| INFORMAL/NEUTRAL | FORMAL |
Opening an Email | Opening an Email |
| Thanks for your last email. | Thank you for your email. |
| Re your last email,… | Regarding your previous email,… With regard to your previous email,… Further to your previous email,… |
| I’m writing about… | I am writing with regards to… I am writing in connection with… I am writing regarding… |
| Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. | Please accept my apologies for not replying sooner. |
Giving Information | Giving Information |
| Good news! We can… | I am delighted to be able to inform you that we are able to… |
| Unfortunately, we can’t… | I am afraid that we are not able to… Regrettably, we cannot… |
| I can confirm that… | I am able to confirm that… |
| This is because… | This is due to… This is owing to… |
| I’m glad to tell you that… | It is my pleasure to inform you that… |
| As things stand,… | Under the present circumstances,… |
| Right now… At the moment… | Currently,… At present,… |
Requests | Requests |
| Can you…? Could you…? | I would be grateful if you could… |
Offers | Offers |
| Do you want us to…? If you’d like, I can | Please let me know whether you would like me to… |
Suggestions | Suggestions |
| How about…? What about…? Maybe we should… Maybe we could… | I was wondering if it would be a good idea to… Perhaps we could consider…? |
Closing an Email | Closing an Email |
| I’ll get back to you asap. | I will contact you as soon as possible. |
| Let me know if you have any more questions. | If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. |
| See you at the conference. | I am looking forward to seeing you at the conference. |