B 2 - Informal letter or email

An informal letter or email is usually between people who know each

other fairly well. In addition to giving news, they are often used to request
information, congratulate people, give advice and ask questions. There are
a lot of similarities between informal letters and conversation. Informal
letters ask a lot of questions, show interest and enthusiasm, and imagine a
lot of shared information.
In many exam questions, you will be told what to include in your reply.
Make sure that your reply answers any questions that you were asked in
the task and takes into account any additional information that you have
been told to mention. It is important that you include these in order to get
a good grade.

How to write informal letters or emails

Greeting
 Start with Dear followed by the first name of the person to whom
you are writing.
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 …
- 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 …

 Thanks
- 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.
FCE

INFORMAL EMAIL/LETTER 1 - MODEL QUESTION

TASK
You have received this email from an English-speaking boy called Simon.
Hello, I would like to get to know someone from your country and a friend
has told me that you would like to practise your English. Perhaps we could
email each other. Could you tell me a bit about yourself and your family?
Could you suggest how we might meet sometime in the future? Thanks,
Simon
Write your email in 140-190 words in an appropriate style.

INFORMAL EMAIL/LETTER 1 - MODEL ANSWER

Dear Simon,
I'm glad you're interested in my country. As your friend said, I'd like us to
email each other to help me improve your English.
Let me start by telling you a bit about myself and my family. My name's
Mark and I live in Alcala, which is about 45 minutes from Madrid by car. I
used to work for a medical company but now I'm learning to be a
salesperson. In the future I want a job where I can travel for my work. I've
already been to a few places in Europe but I've never been to an English-
speaking country.
I live at home with my parents, which is convenient, as I don't have to do
much housework and my meals are cooked for me. My younger brother is
studying at university. Although he is four years younger than me, we get
on quite well. We both enjoy snowboarding and music.
What about you? Have you ever been to the Czech Republic? It would be
great if you could come over one day and we could fix up a meeting. Why
don't you let me know your plans?
Anyway, I must go and get on with my work! Looking forward to hearing
from you soon.
Best wishes,
Mark