Formal & Informal Letters
Your letter must be written in the appropriate tone and style. There are two options:
Formal – to someone you don’t know or don’t know well.
It is essential that you are able to identify what type of question you’re required to write. Follow this general:
If the question includes the word ‘friend’, use informal language.
If the question does not include the word ‘friend’, use formal language.
To learn more about formal and informal letters and see two more IELTS letter samples, click here;
IELTS Letter Writing
The person we are writing to in this question is a friend so, we will write an informal letter. This leads us on to the opening of the letter – the greeting.
The Greeting & Signoff
The Greeting
Always start an informal letter with ‘Dear...’ followed by the first name of the friend, e.g. Dear Ellen,
You probably use ‘Hi...’ and ‘Hello...’ in emails and texts but for letters, ‘Dear...’ is more appropriate, so stick with this.
For a formal letter there are two options for the greeting:
Use Dear Sir or Madam if you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to.
Use Dear + surname if you do know their name, e.g. Dear Mr Smith or Dear Mrs Jones.
The greeting you use will determine how you sign off your letter.
The Signoff
For an informal letter to a friend, use one of these phrases followed by your first name:
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