Salutation or Greeting
Start with Dear followed by the first name of the person to whom you are writing. In emails, you can also start with Hi (and the person's name). Dear Ben, or Hi Ben,
(Don't forget to use only the first name of the person you are writing to and not Dear Mr John, which is never used, or Dear Mr John Brown, which sounds too formal.)
Informal letters sometimes have a comma after the person's name, and the letter starts on the line below. The important thing is to be consistent with the style that you choose to use (so if you use a comma after the person's name at the start of the letter, use a comma after the closing statement at the end).
Body
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 …
Giving news
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 …
Thank you / Congratulations / Good Luck
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.
Additional information
- 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.
(http://www.rubenvalero.com/english/content/fce-informal-letter-or-email)
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