Writing practice: informal email

Target reader: a friend, a pen-friend, a cousin

Beginning the email:

- Hi, Tom! Thanks for dropping me a line.

- Thank you for your email.
- It was great seeing you last week.
- Sorry it’s been so long since I last dropped a
line, but I’ve been busy with my school work.

2-3 lines for the introduction.

Ending the email: Best wishes, Bye for now,

Take care, Hugs and kisses + your name

SOUNDING INFORMAL:

Friendly / joking tone

“How is your diet going? Mine is a total disaster.
I just can’t stop eating burgers.”

“Forget about your grades! They aren’t crucial, if

you know what I mean.”
Spoken English

WELL: “Well, my life is so interesting.”

TO BE HONEST (TBH): “To be honest, I don’t

have a lot of friends. I’ve never been sociable,
you know that.”

IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN: “This teacher is

killing me, if you know what I mean.”

ABSOLUTELY (not)! – strong yes / no

“Do I like my new car? Absolutely!”

“Do I like my new school? Absolutely not!”

AS A MATTER OF FACT: “Are your classmates

nice people? As a matter of fact, they are.”

LET ME KNOW: “Let me know if you’ve broken

up with him.”

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS (surprise): “You’ll never

guess what happened last week. I won the
lottery!”
Common ground
I’m sure you remember Victor, my cousin.
As you know, I’m getting married again in July.

Linking

PLUS:
I’ve just bought a new house plus a fancy car.

AS WELL

I like the French teacher and the physics teacher

as well.

BOTH…AND

Both our school and the cafeteria are cozy

places.

ON THE ONE HAND…ON THE OTHER HAND

On the one hand, social media apps help me to

strike new friends. On the other hand, they can
be time-consuming.
PERSONAL OPINION

To my mind, studying abroad is a great choice!

In my opinion, you should change your school

asap.

From my point of view, spending a fortune on a

car isn’t worth it.

Why would someone make changes to their

room / house / flat?

- To personalize it
- To replace old / old-fashioned furniture
- To have more space
- It might be dirty
- To make a change