Choosing Formal Vocabulary
Choose vocabulary that fits formal speech and writing while preserving meaning. Compare choices such as 'ask for' and 'request', and check each replacement in its sentence.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Select a formal replacement that preserves the meaning of a word or phrase in context
- Identify formal vocabulary choices in official letters and reports
- Select wording that preserves a message while changing between formal and relaxed language
1 · Read
You have compared formal and informal English. Choose vocabulary for the audience and purpose of your message. An official letter often uses formal wording; a relaxed text to a friend may use everyday phrases. Both can be clear and polite. One word is not automatically more suitable than a phrase. Check whether the wording fits the situation and keeps your meaning.
Request means ask for. Sufficient means enough to meet a need. These words can suit formal letters and reports. Discover can replace find out when someone learns something previously unknown, but check that it sounds natural in the sentence. Familiar words such as ask and enough can also fit formal writing. Choose a word for its meaning and use, not its length.
Get has several meanings. In 'We got a parcel', it can mean received something delivered. In 'We got to the museum', got to means arrived at a place. Receive cannot replace both uses. Read the words around get, decide what happened, then try a replacement. Read the new sentence to check that the action, people and place stay the same.
Priya texts a friend, 'How much are the tickets?' In a formal letter, she writes, 'I would like to request information about ticket prices.' Both ask for prices. A request for a refund would ask for money back and change her purpose. To make a message more relaxed, you can replace 'Please inform me of the time' with 'What time does it start?' Keep the same question.
When revising a report, keep every fact. Complete can replace finish when you describe a task. 'The team finished the display in twelve minutes' can become 'The team completed the display in twelve minutes.' Keep the same task and time. Changing 'the display' to 'all displays', or 'twelve minutes' to 'less than twelve minutes', changes the claim.
Choose vocabulary for the audience and purpose. Check that each replacement fits its sentence and preserves the message's facts.
Lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset. Practice situations are invented.
Five readings and six flashcards written for this dataset.
More to read
Choose words for the task
A school newsletter, a complaint letter and a chat with a friend may need different wording. Start by identifying your reader and what you want the message to do.
Formal vocabulary can help with an official request, but ordinary words can also fit. 'Please send the timetable' is a clear request. Replacing every familiar word would not necessarily improve it.
After revising, check whether the message still asks for or reports the same thing. A suitable word must work in the whole sentence.
A replacement needs context
Read 'Jo got a message' and 'Jo got to the gate'. In the first sentence, got can mean received. In the second, got to means reached a place. One replacement cannot serve both meanings.
Check amounts too. Enough says that a need is met. Plenty usually suggests a generous amount. These words may express different claims.
Before accepting a replacement, compare the old and new sentences. Check the action, people, amount, place and time. Keep the original wording if a replacement changes the intended meaning.
Keep the request unchanged
Suppose you want a copy of a sports club's rules. A relaxed message could say, 'Can you send me the club rules?' A formal letter could say, 'I would like to request a copy of the club rules.' Both ask for the same document.
'Please change the club rules' would ask for a different action. It changes the purpose, even though it sounds polite.
Write your message in two ways. Change its vocabulary for the reader, then compare the versions to check that they still make the same request.
Words for discussing vocabulary
Diction means word choice. To describe a writer's diction, identify particular words and explain what they contribute.
Tone is the attitude the writing expresses towards its subject or reader. A request might sound friendly, impatient or serious. One word alone may not settle its tone.
Connotation is an associated idea or feeling beyond a word's basic meaning. Calling a room cosy can suggest comfort; calling it cramped can suggest too little space. Both concern a small room, but they express different views of it. A vocabulary swap can change that view.
Casual words and full forms
Yep and yup are casual ways to say yes. They can suit friendly conversation. Yes can work in either a formal or an informal setting.
The situation matters. A short reply to a familiar teacher may sound different from the same reply in an official letter. A casual word does not by itself establish disrespect.
Formal writing often uses full forms such as cannot instead of can't. Expectations vary with the task and publication. Follow any guidance you have been given, then check the whole message rather than judging its formality from one contraction.
2 · Watch
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Where it sits
Where this leads
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8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.