Formal vs. Informal    

In English, relative formality is less a question of grammar than of vocabulary and syntax, whereas other languages -- Spanish, for example -- use a different set of verb conjugations. In an informal situation, I might say, "Gimme that." But the formal expression would be "Would you please pass me that?" More idiom than rule here.

Why is this important? Language expresses the vast range of human relationships, and some are more formal than others. If my brother and I are watching TV and I say "Would you please pass me the chips?", he would assume I was joking or angry at him or had been replaced by a robot. But if I were having dinner with the President and said, "Gimme the potatoes," I might be thrown out before the dessert arrives.

Source : http://www.englishforums.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=18935

Stylistics
                                    Formal or Informal language   

Official or serious situations are often signalled by the use of formal language, while ordinary or relaxed situations are signalled by the use of informal language. Formality of language varies in relation to such factors as public v. private occasion, the size of the audience, the relationship of the speaker/writer with the audience, and so on. The ability to vary your language according to the situation is often considered a mark of an educated person (see Appropriateness).

1. Formal language, even when spoken, is often associated with the conventions expected of written standard English. At its most extreme, formal language is signalled by complex, complete sentences, impersonality, avoidance of colloquial or slang vocabulary, and a consistent preference for learned?words, often derived from Latin.

2. Informal language is characterised by a simpler grammatical structure (i.e. loosely-connected sentences and phrases), personal evaluation, and a colloquial or slang vocabulary.

3. Formal and informal forms of address also differ, e.g. from the frozen? My Right Honourable and Learned Friend associated with official parliamentary proceedings, to the intimate darling or love associated with close friends and family.

Source : http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/EngLang/LILT/forminf.htm
 

 Formal or informal 

People often speak of language as being correct or incorrect. It would be more accurate to refer to particular language structures as being formal or informal, appropriate or inappropriate for a specific context. In everyday conversation we do not have to follow the rules of grammar as carefully as we would in a formal address or a business letter. If we adhere too closely to formal rules of grammar in an informal situation, we can come across as being stuffy and unnatural. It is like wearing a tuxedo or a formal gown to an ordinary business meeting.

Formal English follow rules of grammar very strictly. Sentences tend to be longer and more complex. The vocabulary tends to be elevated, using big words and avoiding slang or vernacular. It avoids split infinitives and prepositions at the end of sentences .

Here are several structures where it is can be helpful to know the level of usage, formal or informal.

Predicate nominative or " It wasn't me".

Informal Language

In writing, there are three recognized levels of formality, each of which uses different vocabulary and sentence structure:

1. Informal language may make use of slang and colloquialisms, employing the conventions of spoken language. However, it is too casual and loose to be acceptable for academic writing.
2. Medium language uses general language, falling in between informal and formal writing. It is acceptable for academic writing.
3. Formal language uses a Latinate vocabulary and rhetorical devices to create literary-like effects.

In choosing a level of formality, consider both your material and your readership. A serious, dignified subject for a knowledgeable audience requires formal language. In contrast, informal writing is appropriate for private letters, some business correspondence, popular journalism, and personal narratives. Academic writing, however, should range from medium to formal language.  The following three sentences attempt to highlight the the three levels of formality.   

Informal: Psychobabble is a bunch of crap that confuses people.
Medium: Psychobabble is a jargonistic smoke screen that obscures the clarity of understanding it pretends to promote.
Formal: Psychobabble is a set of repetitive verbal formalities that obfuscates the lucidity of comprehension it feigns to advance.

Source : http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/english/HORNBOOK/informal.htm

Predicate nominative or Predicate noun

The predicate noun or predicate nominative is a word or group of words that comes after a linking verb and refers back to the subject of the sentence. It gives another name or designation to the subject. The following sentences end with a predicate noun:

My car is a Saturn.
My cat's name is Dickens.

Car and Saturn are the same thing. Cat's name and Dickens are also the same thing.

Pronouns as predicate nouns

It is I.
That is he.

If those sentences sound strange to you, the Grammar Doctor hereby give you permission to say,
It's me.
Yeah, that's him.

If you're torn between being grammatically correct and sounding stiff and unnatural, instead of saying,
It is I,
you can say,
This is Carl.

Instead of saying,
That is he,
you can say,
He's the one.


who, whom

 Who/Whom

PREDICATE NOUN: You can be whoever you want.

" Whom" is correct if it is a direct object or an object of a preposition.

Direct Object: The man whom he hit is suing.

Object of Preposition: To whom is the message directed?

Part of the confusion over " who" and " whom" arises because the words often occur in complex sentences where it is difficult to see the function of the word in the sentence.

Give the message to whoever answers the door.

(The correct word here is " whoever" because it is the subject of " answers." People tend to use " whomever" here because it comes after a preposition, but the object of the preposition is the entire clause " whoever comes to the door.")

A Final Note

split infinitive

Split infinitives
 

to die, to sleep, perchance to dream.

If a descriptive word is put between " to" and the verb, it is called a split infinitive:

to quietly die, to bravely go forth, to fondly remember

English writers have been splitting infinitives for centuries, but pedantic grammarians in the nineteenth century began calling it incorrect to split an infinitive. It is one of those rulings based on Latin rather than the natural grammar of English.

Except in the most formal settings, it is quite acceptable to quietly split an infinitive now and then, but if you do, some pedant is going to falsely accuse you of being ungrammatical.

prepositions

Prepositions at the End of the Sentence

Where do rules of grammar come from?

Rules should grow naturally from the language, rather than be imposed artificially. (See rules of grammar.)

Here is what some prominent scholars of the English language have to say about that rule.

• " Good writers throughout the history of English--from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Alison Lurie and David Lodge--have not shrunk from ending clauses or sentences prepositions. It isn't something that we should go out of our way to do, but if the alternative that comes readily to mind seems stilted, there's no reason for us to go out of our way to avoid doing it, either." Barbara Wallraff, Word Court
• " Since we hate to force prepositions apart from their objects, the most graceful sentences don't end with prepositions. But prepositions and their objects should not be unnaturally forced together, either" Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax Constance Hale also quoted Winston Churchill's famous state that poked fun at pedants who objected to prepositions at the end of sentences. " This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."
• Patricia T. O'Connor in Woe Is I , refers to the rule about prepositions at the end of a sentence as a tombstone that should R.I.P. She puts her finger on the man who started that stupid rule, Robert Lowth, an eighteenth century clergyman who wrote a grammar book. He made the rule up because that's the way it is in Latin! But it never belonged in the English language.

Unfortunately, the editor agreed with the pedantic readers, so you won't find any sentences in the book that end with prepositions.

Take a quiz on formal English

Formal or Informal Exercise   

 1. Who should I send this to?
 2. Whom should I send this to?
 3. Gear this for the audience it is intended for.
 4. He began to really try hard.
 5. He began to slowly realize what had happened.
 6. He's usually easy going. But before his first cup of coffee, he's a bear.
 7. This department is going to work together as a team. And don't you forget it!
 8. Are you sure it's finished? Checked every detail?
 9. I needed the money for a couple of important things. Like paying the rent and buying groceries.
10. We're going to have a big bash, and you're invited.
11. The Smiths request the pleasure of your company at a banquet to be held in the honor of their son Josiah, who will be graduating from Andover College.

answers

Answers to Formal or Informal Exercise  

The first three sentences all end with prepositions. Although the Grammar Doctor thinks the rule about prepositions at the end of the sentence should be revoked, in more formal English it is best to avoid prepositions at the end of the sentence. (See the Grammar Doctor's view on this: prepositions)
The first sentence should use " whom" rather than " who" since it is the object of a preposition.
(To whom should I send this?)

 4. He began to really try hard.
 5. He began to slowly realize what had happened.

Sentences four and five have split infinitives. (Horrors!)That is, they put an adverb between " to" and the rest of the infinitive. This is a violation of Latin grammar, so some eighteenth century pedant decided it ought to be against the law in English grammar as well. Because we still have plenty of pedants around, we have to avoid splitting infinitives in more formal language.
(He really began to try hard.)

 6. He's usually easy going. But before his first cup of coffee, he's a bear.
 7. This department is going to work together as a team. And don't you forget it!

Numbers six and seven contain sentences that start with conjunctions (" but" and " and"). You remember your English teacher telling you not to do that, don't you? It should be avoided in more formal English.

 8. Are you sure it's finished? Checked every detail?
 9. I needed the money for a couple of important things. Like paying the rent and buying groceries.

Numbers eight and nine contain sentence fragments. In standard English they are perfectly acceptable. The fragment isolates and emphasizes an idea. In more formal English, they should be part of the original sentence or made into a separate sentence.
(I needed the money for a couple of important things, like paying the rent and buying groceries.)

10. We're going to have a big bash, and you're invited.

" Bash" is too slangy for a formal context.

11. The Smiths request the pleasure of your company at a banquet to be held in the honor of their son Josiah, who will be graduating from Andover College.

This sentence would be acceptable in a formal situation, such as a formal invitation.
 

Source :  http://hometown.aol.com/drcarlperrin/formal.html

Language and Style   

In any language, different styles of expression are appropriate in different situations. We can go from the formal to the informal, the written to the spoken, from technical language (or jargon) to slang.
 

Principles of English written style:

Note: these are principles: they are by no means to be considered as "rules". Examples follow.
a) The more formal a document  is, the more it will use inanimate nouns as subjects of a sentence.
b) The more formal language is, the more it is likely to use passive structures.
c) The more formal language is, the more verbal nouns it will use.
d) the more formal a document is, the more words of Latin origin it will use.
 

Conversely

a) The more informal or spontaneous language is, the more it will use humans as the subjects of sentences.
b) The more informal a text is, the less it will use passive structures,
c) The more informal a text is, the more it will use verb structures (where a choice is possible).
b) The more informal or spoken a text is, the more words of Germanic origin it will use.
 

Here are some examples; in each case, the same idea is expressed using three different levels of formality: look at the different changes that occur, as we move from a formal style to an informal one
 

From Written to spoken styles.

Written and spoken versions of a language use different styles, different registers. To talk in "written English" may be no more appropriate than to write using a "spoken" variety of English. Generally speaking, written English is always more formal than spoken English. nevertheless, there are informal forms of written English (notably in fiction and in the popular press), and formal styles of spoken English, in particular "discourse", or prepared speech.

In the following examples, the same message is expressed in five different styles, from an extremely formal written style, to the very informal spoken style. 
Note in particular how the colour coded word groups evolve.
(The information expressed in the following examples is necessarily quite technical, as formal jargon levels of expression are totally inappropriate for non technical communication). 
 

Source : http://website.lineone.net/~eshp/styles.htm

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