Informal Letters and E-mails

A letter should have ...

• greetings appropriate to its style

• conclusion where you state the reason for writing a letter

• introduction where you state the reason for writing a letter

• a signature ending and the author's signature

You may start an informal letter with the following greetings

• Dear Mum

• Hi/ Hello Bill!

• Dearest Karen!

• Dear brother

You may finish an informal letter/e-mail like this.

• Lots of kisses

• Yours faithfully

• Take care

• Best wishes

In informal letters/ e-mails

• you can't use any short forms

• you may use colloquial language

• you can use emoticons

• you can use informal phrasals and idioms

How can you start an informal letter?

• Just thought I'd drop you a line.

• I haven't heard from you for ages.

• What have you been up to?

• It was nice to hear from you.

Find the odd-one-out

• Sorry I haven't written for so long but...

• It's taken me ages to reply.

• Well I'd better finish off here.

• I've been meaning to write back but ...

How can you finish and informal letter/ e-mail?

• Well, I think it's about it.

• Give my regards to everyone.

• Waiting for your letter.

• Looking forward to hearing from you.

You can invite someone informally like this.

• Why don't we go ...?

• Would you like to go ...?

• Do you have to go ...?

• How about going ...?

You can express your opinion like this.

• I think/ feel ...

• I'd like to ...

• To my mind...

• In my opinion/ view ...

How to start a letter giving advice?

• I've given your problem a lot of thought.

• I was sorry to hear that you've got problems.

• I'm writing to complain about ...

• The reason I'm writing back so quickly is to give you some advice.