Hello, and today I'm continuing with the series of episodes on formal and informal English. [See episode 13 and 26 for the first two episodes in this series.] Now, today, I'm going to look at letters of complaint or emails of complaint. Who writes letters these days? Well, it doesn't really matter whether we write letters or not because when we're talking about formal language, for example, the language of complaining, well, I would say an email would be written in a similar way to how we used to write letters in the past. Now, what I'm going to do is to look at two or three examples of complaints letters.
So you lodge a complaint, or you complain about something, you make a formal complaint. So we start then the email or letter with
Dear sir, OR dear madam,
and if we do that, then we'll end the letter or email at the end with
yours faithfully OR yours faithfully.
However, if we start the email or letter with the name, for example,
Dear Mr Jones,
then we'll end the letter or email with
Yours sincerely.
Now, the Americans say
Yours truly.
And there are some other variations. We'll see one later.
Yours cordially,
but yours faithfully and yours sincerely are the more common ones.
Right. Okay. So here is a complaint, then, of a business who's writing to complain about the olive oil order they received, which was wrong.
Dear Sir, we were very concerned to discover that both the quantity and quality of the olive oil sent by you did not coincide with that stipulated in our order.
What do we notice? Well, we are not using any type of contractions in our formal English. So for example, here it says did not coincide. So did not we would write that out in full and not didn't coincide. The other thing then, as I spoke about in the two previous episodes on formal English, the use of Latin-based words here, we were very concerned - that sounds more formal than we were very worried. To discover sounds more formal than to find out the quality and quantity of the olive oil sent by you, that could actually be dispatched by you did not coincide that Latin-based word with that stipulated (stipulated instead of laid out) in our order number, blah, blah, blah.
So that goes on with the description, I'll just go to the last paragraph, we should be grateful. Now if you want to be really formal, you can say we should, instead of we would, we should be grateful for a speedy delivery. Speedy, who says speedy? it's not a Latin-based word but it sounds more formal than a fast delivery of the remaining cases of virgin olive oil, together with instructions regarding the return of those cases. So, regarding instead of the abbreviation re., as I spoke about in an earlier podcast, regarding the return of those cases, in our possession, that were not ordered. In our possession - much more formal than that we have, or that we've got.
Okay, I'll move on to another one here. This is a complaint to an airline company because the flight was late.
This last Friday, 22nd February, we took a flight with your company in business class, which we are now deeply regretting...
deeply regretting. Instead of we're sorry about it or we wish we hadn't done it. We're deeply regretting - that regretting is a nice Latin-based word, which makes the complaint sound more formal. And the letter goes on.
And the last paragraph, which is the part of the email, which stipulates the action you're going to take,
I regret to have to inform you that I shall be seeking compensation for damages.
So I regret - nice Latin-based word to inform you, and I shall be seeking - I shall be if you want to be very formal - the use the old English shall, in the first person, I shall be seeking, seeking is an Anglo Saxon word. But it's a more literary sort of word that you might read in literature, in a novel, for example, to seek - usually in spoken English we would use to look for, but here I say,
I shall be seeking compensation for damages.
Now, the last one I'm going to look at is an interesting mix of formal and informal language to make a point. And the point is that this lady is complaining about a holiday that she went on. And this is, well, back in those days when we used to go to travel agents, and the travel agent would organize our holiday for us. And we depended more [on them] in those days, didn't we? With the information that came in the holiday brochure, that sort of magazine with all those lovely, glossy colour photos of hotels and beaches and exotic places. These days it's different, isn't it? We can find out our own information on the Internet. Anyway, what's interesting about this letter then, is how we can mix formal and informal English to make a point. And what she does is to quote from the brochure, and the brochure, as it's trying to sell the holiday uses a rather literary style, which you may find in novels, as I've just explained. That sounds more formal, and she compares that with a sort of Anglo Saxon informal language to contrast.
So let's look at the effect.
I have just returned from my holiday in Greece, at the Hotel Athens in Hania, Crete, that you expressly recommended. Unfortunately, neither your recommendations, nor those of the holiday brochure, coincided with reality.
So that's our introductory paragraph with lots of Latin-based words packed in there. Now here, there are three paragraphs where she compares the quotes from the holiday brochure and her own reality.
Firstly, the hotel was not, "alongside the beach", but in a very seedy, and run down...
run down - phrasal verb
...area of the city, the area close to the hotel was not, "quiet and relaxing with only the cries of gulls and the whisper of the waves on the beach...
further nice formal literary language,
but loud with the continuous rattling of pneumatic drills by day and drunken Greeks at night!
drunken Greeks at night. So that a nice sort of comparison there of the Anglo Saxon, informal English, with the literary English from the brochure.
Secondly, there was no good-sized swimming pool shaded by palm trees, but a dirty deep hole in the ground with no water in it and not one palm tree to be found.
So, again, a nice contrast there. Notice all those words practically, in the Anglo Saxon section, which makes it sound more informal, are monosyllabic: deep hole in the ground with no water in it, and not one palm tree to be found - monosyllabic words - so characteristic of Anglo Saxon, informal English.
Last paragraph here of the description.
Lastly, the hotel room did not "boast an ample balcony with views of leaping dolphins in the bay".
That was in speech marks.
In fact, I could not see anything from my bedroom window, except the stone wall of the block of flats, five metres from my invisible balcony.
Then the last paragraph is now very formal. And this is the action paragraph that we put in a an email to say what we're going to do about the situation. So listen to the Latin-based words packed in here to make it sound very formal.
As you may imagine, due to the obvious distress these revelations caused me after embarking on this holiday with such high expectations - raised by you, I trust that you will not be surprised that I shall be consulting my lawyers about taking further action against you.
That's wonderful, isn't it? Lots of lovely Latin-based words there to make that nice and formal. And then there are just some words in there, which are in fact, Anglo Saxon, but we use them only in formal situations, because they're quite literary. I trust that you will not be surprised - I trust. And then taking further action against you. And she finishes the letter with
yours cordially
which sounds very cold, very cold indeed [in this context].
So I hope that's given you more ideas about how we manipulate, formal and informal English to give over (to convey) the message and the tone of the message that we want, or that we desire. Okay, that's all for me for now. Bye bye.
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