{"id":4894,"date":"2023-03-03T13:33:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T13:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/?p=4894"},"modified":"2024-08-27T05:30:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T05:30:32","slug":"the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language","title":{"rendered":"The difference between formal and informal language"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"main-content\" data-grid=\"col-12\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph-3\">When you\u2019re beginning a new writing project or assignment, it helps to know your audience. If you\u2019re among friends, peers, or loved ones, you can use slang and break the rules. And by comparison, formal language is less personal or humorous. There is less slang to be found in formal writing, and the sentence structure more closely follows grammatical rules. <\/p>\n<p>Learn the key elements that define formal vs. informal language, and see how either form applies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"full-bleed-image\">\n        <picture class=\"c-image\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:767px) and (max-width:1600px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:540px) and (max-width:767px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-1600x600-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-1600x600-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n    <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the different tones to strike when you\u2019re writing to your audience? Learn the common elements that make up formal vs. informal language so you can connect with your readers, no matter what you\u2019re writing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-4894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The difference between formal and informal language \u2013 Microsoft 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Know your audience when you begin a new writing project. No matter what you\u2019re writing, learn the differences between formal and informal language so you can better appeal to your readers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The difference between formal and informal language \u2013 Microsoft 365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Know your audience when you begin a new writing project. No matter what you\u2019re writing, learn the differences between formal and informal language so you can better appeal to your readers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-800x550-1.jpg\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The difference between formal and informal language \u2013 Microsoft 365","description":"Know your audience when you begin a new writing project. 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No matter what you\u2019re writing, learn the differences between formal and informal language so you can better appeal to your readers.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/The-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language-800x550-1.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language","name":"The difference between formal and informal language \u2013 Microsoft 365","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-03-03T13:33:13+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-27T05:30:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/#\/schema\/person\/55ca651b2ccce6c95ad8d20feac4e8fd"},"description":"Know your audience when you begin a new writing project. No matter what you\u2019re writing, learn the differences between formal and informal language so you can better appeal to your readers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/the-difference-between-formal-and-informal-language#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Microsoft 365 Life Hacks","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Writing","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The difference between formal and informal language"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/","name":"Everyday Life Hacks","description":"Just another Everday Hacks Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/#\/schema\/person\/55ca651b2ccce6c95ad8d20feac4e8fd","name":"M365 Lifehacks","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b4b4442f49a700b4d71fa4e9a182bbd468722b79a761a25621ffea4e5673e1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b4b4442f49a700b4d71fa4e9a182bbd468722b79a761a25621ffea4e5673e1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"M365 Lifehacks"},"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/author\/m365adm"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}