How to write informal emails in English

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Hey everyone, I'm Alex, thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on how to write

an informal email.

If you have seen my other lesson on how to write a professional email, think of this

as a companion video that you can watch to teach you how to write to friends or work

colleagues that you are very familiar with.

A lot of the language that we are using today - because it's informal, it's almost like

you are writing how you speak, okay.

And when you're writing informally, not everything is 100% grammatically correct, because when

you speak informally among friends, you don't always speak 100% grammatically correct, and

you just use a different type of vocabulary, different sentence structures, etc.

So, let's look at starting an informal email, and again, this is not the only structure,

these are some ideas for you guys when you're writing your emails to your friends and also

you can use this in text messages or other messaging services and software that you guys

probably use on your mobiles or tablets or laptops, whatever.

Greeting.

Just like any other email, normally you want to start by introducing yourself or saying

hello, so you can say "Hey Phil", "Hey Mark", "Hey Jack", "Hey Erica", "Hey Brenda", or

"Hi", right?

"Hey, Hi" Maybe not hello.

Hello is very formal, so if you're saying hello to your friend, maybe to your mom?

"Hello, Mother", it's very formal, if you have a very formal relationship with your

mom, I guess you could do that.

"Hey, Hi", if you want to get a little more informal and use a little bit of slang, you

can also just say "Yo" or "'Sup".

"'Sup" is a very short form of "what's up?" which means "What is going on?

What is new?"

okay?

So, you can say "Yo, Erica" "Sup Jen" or "Hey Jack" "Hi Brenden", whoever, right?

Whoever this person is.

Your close friend that you are familiar with already or work colleague that you have a

close relationship with.

So, after your greeting, you might want to just check in, "check in", basically ask how

this person is doing.

So, very, very neutral.

"Hey, how are you?".

This is very neutral.

It can also sound a little formal, depending on the person you're talking to, so if you

want to go a little more informal instead of just asking "How are you?", you can ask

"How's it going?"

a short form for "How's it going?" is "How goes?"

I'm typing on a keyboard, I'm imagining myself.

So, again, grammatically, not correct.

Incorrect, but definitely a common phrase: "How goes?"

"How's it going?".

You can also say "How've you been?"

How have you been?

Shorten it with a contraction with "how have", "how've", "How've you been?".

If you want to get rid of even more words here and be super informal, you could just

say "How you been?", alright, type "How you been?", "How you doing?"

This, again, is a little more informal than "How are you doing?" is the full correct grammatical

question, but you could just type "How you doing?", "How are you doing?", "How have you

been doing?".

There are very many, many ways that you can do this, alright?

Or "Hey, what's going on?"

"Hey Jack, what's going on?"

"What's new with you", alright?

So, after checking in, asking how they're doing, you can kind of give a time mention

or a reason mention for your email, and you can even start with this, like, you can flip

these, alright?

So, here - time mention, what I mean by time - so, "Hey Jack, how's it going?

It's been awhile."

It has been a long time since we have chatted or since I've talked to you.

Or "Hey Jack, How you doing?

Haven't heard from you in a bit."

I haven't heard from you in a bit - in a long time, in awhile.

Awhile just means a period of time, okay?

So, "Haven't heard from you in a bit" in a bit of time, in a period of time.

You can also, you know, give a reason.

So, "Yo Jessica, How've you been?

I've been meaning to write to you for a long time."

So, I have had the intention of writing to you for a long time.

I have been meaning to, this means I have wanted to, I have had the intention of writing

to you for a long time, so after for, remember, you can list just a duration of time - for

a long time, for a week, for a month, for seven days, for two hours, I don't know, something

like that.

And since -- you give a specific time in the past.

Since your birthday.

I've been meaning to write to you since the last time I saw you, since your mother's funeral,

I don't know, something like that.

Depends on the situation.

And you can also just say something super casual.

So, let's say, "Yo Ricky, What's going on?

Thought I'd drop you a line."

So, I thought I would drop you a line.

To drop someone a line means to leave them a message or send them a message.

So, if I say "Hey, drop me a line", this could mean, you know, "Call me", it could mean "Text

me", it could mean "Email me", "Contact me", "Message me".

So "Hey, thought I'd drop you a line".

Next reason: "Just checking in".

"I'm just checking in to hear what's new", okay.

I'm going to step away from the board so you guys can see everything here.

Watch my hand.

Boom!

Just checking in to hear what's new, okay?

So, I'm just checking in to hear what's new, or to see what's new with you.

Next, what have we got?

Okay, so, right now you've asked about them, you've told them why you're emailing, a general

personal situation.

Next, you want to tell them how you have been doing, so very very common to say "Things

are" or "Things have been ______________ on my end" or "on this end".

Now, "On my end" or "On this end" means like, over here, with me, on my side, on this side

of the communication tunnel.

It's not a tunnel, but you get the idea, right?

Okay.

So, things have been - here's a variety of example adjectives that you can use or adverb

and adjective combinations.

"Things have been okay on this end."

"Things have been super busy on my end."

"Things have been pretty stressful on my end, or on this end."

"Things have been really good on this end."

Or you can say, for me, "Things have been really good for me lately", another thing,

"Things have been up and down".

Things have been, you know, up and down on this end.

"Things have been pretty exciting on my end".

Or, "Things have been uneventful", things have been boring on my end, on this end, okay?

So, let's do - I'll do two examples for you so far of what we've got with this email.

So:

Hey Janice.

How's it going?

I've been meaning to write to you for a long time.

Things - yes - things have been super busy on my end.

That's one example.

You can just kind of take them and just mix and match.

You can even use this in an email today after this lesson.

Type it, try it, do it in the comments.

Let's do one more:

Let's see...

Hi Jasmine.

How've you been?

Thought I'd drop you a line.

Things have been pretty good on my end.

Now, we're not done, because an email doesn't just end like that.

So, let's keep going to the next board.

Okay.

So now, let's get on to your personal news.

Usually in the personal news part of your email, you're probably using the simple past

tense or the present perfect tense, maybe you're going to use the future if you want

to talk about you know, I'm going to start university next week or something like that.

But just some examples.

This is going to be totally freestyle, up to you, depends on your life, but I'm going

to give you some examples.

So, "I got a new job last week!" alright?

I got a new job last week.

"I start tomorrow!"

So, the job starts tomorrow, I'm very excited, so things have been pretty exciting on this

end.

I got a new job last week!

I start tomorrow.

"My mom's been in the hospital.

She had an accident".

So, things have been, you know, a little sad on this end.

My mom's been in the hospital.

She had an accident.

"I've joined the gym.

It's been great."

So, you use a lot of contractions in informal emails, so "My mom's been", my mom has been.

"I've joined the gym, it's been great", not "It has been great", "It's been great".

"I've just been reading a lot".

So very common - I've just been, like things have been pretty boring, or things have been

pretty uneventful on this side, on this end.

"I've just been reading a lot".

How about "I've been keeping myself busy with ..." and then you can mention whatever has

been keeping you busy.

So, "I've been keeping myself busy with Stranger Things season..." add the season number for

yourself.

I don't know what season we're on as you're watching this video.

At the time of this taping, it's season three.

So far, so good.

I haven't finished it yet.

I will have finished it by the time you see this, and I think it's going to be good.

Stranger Things, Netflix, watch it, it's really good, no, seriously.

"I've been keeping myself busy with jogging."

"I've been keeping myself busy with writing."

I've been keeping myself busy with improv classes.", it could be anything, okay?

"Work has been crazy lately."

Or "Work has been crazy busy", you can say, so if you want to talk about your job and

talk about how busy you have been.

Okay.

So, you give personal news, and then a very common transition word in informal emails:

Anyway, okay.

So, anyway, and you give a second check-in.

So, I'm going to step off so you can get the whole board.

I know a lot of you guys like to take a screencap of the whole board so there you are.

Anyway, boom!

"How are things on your end?"

How are things on your side?

Hm, "Let me know what's been going on with you", so tell me what is new with you.

Anyway, "Hope you're doing well.", so I hope you are okay, and then sign off.

That was my cool walk, you can't see me walking because you only see from here, which is great,

because I'm not wearing pants!

I've used that joke in a video before,

Okay.

Sign off: "Talk to you soon".

You can also just say "Talk soon".

Very, very short, very informal.

Talk soon.

You can say "Take it easy", like, don't stress, take it easy.

"Have a good one".

Have a good day, have a good week, have a good life, whatever.

Next, "Take care", "Be good", or instead of "Be good", similar "Stay out of trouble",

or you can simply say "Later", like see you later, talk you later, talk to you soon, however

you wish.

So now, I'm going to sign off, and I hope you guys got a lot of useful information in

this lesson.

If you want to test your understanding of this lesson, as always, you can check out

the quiz on www.engvid.com . And what I want to see from you guys, if you really, really

want to practice and not just, you know, do the multiple-choice quiz, type a comment as

an email.

So, say, "Hey Alex", "Yo Alex", "'Sup Alex".

And remember, when you're typing, if you say "'Sup" or "Yo", you got to roll up your sleeves

because that's how the cool people do it.

"'Sup Alex?"

"Yo Alex", and then write the rest, or on your phone.

It's the 'roll up your sleeves', even in public, and take a picture of yourself.

That's funny, too.

Okay, yes, type a comment, write me an email in a comment and check out the quiz, I already

said that.

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You can also check me out on YouTube or you can subscribe, turn on the notifications,

and I'm also on Facebook and Twitter.

You can see me there as well, and maybe Instagram one day.

I know I keep saying it, but maybe not.

My pictures are not that interesting.

I don't think I'm a good photographer.

Maybe I can get better, though.

You tell me, should I get Instagram?

I know I've asked this before, but should I?

Maybe.

Alright, well, let me see if I can do all of these sign offs for you guys.

So, talk to you soon!

Take it easy.

Have a good one!

Take care.

Be good.

Stay out of trouble.

Later!

Thanks for clicking.

Peace.