- [David] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie! - [Rosie] Hi, David. - [David] We're gonna be
talking about what we call the spectrum of formality today, in the context of language style. Balancing your style between
formal and informal language, when it's appropriate, is
just a general life skill, but it's also something
that's tested on the SAT. - [Rosie] And you can check
out KhanAcademy.org/SAT to find out more about that. - [David] So, when we talk about formal versus informal language, what
we're really talking about is this thing called register. What is appropriate for the, whether it's like a social occasion, or a style of writing that
you're attempting to do, you know, what register
should you speak in? So let me give you an example. Gary Evans, the esteemed
chairman of the board, is blank. Right, we have this sentence we want to fill in this blank with something. There are a couple of
ways we could do this. We could say, Gary Evans, the esteemed
chairman of the board, is a pretty decent dude. Now, there are a couple
of things that tell me that a pretty decent dude is
not stylistically appropriate for this sentence. And it's both that we're
applying the adjective esteemed to Gary, and that we're giving him this high highfalutin title,
chairman of the board, and so probably, in this situation, we wouldn't wanna say, we wouldn't wanna use this kind of slangy, informal language, pretty decent dude. - [Rosie] Right, there's
a level of respect that we're conveying with this esteemed chairman of the board. - [David] So instead, well, I don't know, Rosie, what's another thing
we could put in there? - [Rosie] Let's say, Gary Evans, the esteemed chairman of the board, is a renowned philanthropist. - [David] Oh! A renowned philanthropist. So, in addition to being like a large, four-dollar word, philanthropist is a word that just means, like, someone
who literally loves people, and this refers to
generosity of this person. And so we can tell by the respect that we are according
this person by the use of the word esteemed, that renowned philanthropist probably an appropriate
set of words to use to describe this man. But what we just showed you was an example of being insufficiently formal. Here's what it looks like
if you're too formal. - [Rosie] Please join
us for little Philip's first birthday celebration. This festive occasion
will include an abundance of delightful diversions
in which you can partake. - [David] This is a little
boy's birthday party. (both chuckling) - [Rosie] Let's get a hold of ourselves. - [David] Let's, you know,
this is not a steak dinner. Maybe reel it in. You have to tailor the content of what you're trying to write to it's context, right? - [Rosie] Right. - [David] Like how fancy
is the first birthday party of a little boy going to be? Rosie, have you been to a
child's first birthday party as an adult? - [Rosie] I have, I have. It was not this fancy. - [David] No. - [Rosie] But it wasn't, you know, the prince of a country or something. - [David] Right, like, okay, I'll give you a pass
if, like, little Philip is the prince of your nation. - [Rosie] Yes. - [David] Otherwise, like, this first sentence is fine, please join us for little Philip's first birthday celebration. This festive occasion
will include an abundance of delightful diversions
in which you can partake, maybe a little much. So if we were going to rewrite this, I would probably tone down
the language a little bit, and just ratchet it back. I might even go so far
as to say, lil Philip. - [Rosie] I like it. - [David] Maybe throw
in an exclamation point because we're excited. This just seems, this language
seems a little stuffy, even the word describing a party, it seems very emotionally
removed from partiness. - [Rosie] Oh, that's much better. - [David] Thank you. So, please join us for lil
Philip's first birthday party. It's going to be fun:
we'll have cake and games. Let us know if you can make it. We're taking this content, there's an abundance of
delightful diversions, which, I suppose at a
first birthday party, would probably, again, be cake and games. There's not really that much that a one year old can do at a party. - [Rosie] That's true. - [David] So we're taking this, high register, this
formal register language and then just kinda dialing
it back a couple of notches. So we've got formal on this side, informal over here. You're here, you wanna be at about here. The main thing, your main indicator for whether or not language
is formal or informal is the kind of vocabulary
that you choose to deploy. So the more informal you are, the more likely you are
to use silly vocabulary or made up words. - [Rosie] And contractions. - [David] Contractions. So the more informal, contractions, slang, profanity. I mean, look, we here at Khan Academy, we're not advising you to
curse all over the place, but if you must, do it in
an informal setting, right? - Right.
- Like, formal settings are not suitable for obscenity, that's why it's called obscenity. And then the more formal
your language becomes, the more likely your vocabulary
is to become more complex or specialized, like if I were, let's
say if I were a doctor, and I were addressing
a doctors' convention, I would probably use a
lot of doctor language, right, like specialized vocab. The more formal you are,
as Rosie was saying, the more less likely you
are to use contractions, so full constructions? An example of that would be, on the informal side of the
scale, you might say can't, where the formal you would say cannot. - [Rosie] Yeah, I think the
other side of the profanity is potentially more respectful, depending on who you're speaking with. So, you might address someone, you know, you might
address someone as sir. - [David] Formal language generally means a more respectful form of address, so if I were to say, like, on the informal side, yo buddy! It's extremely informal, as opposed to, excuse me, sir. That's quite formal. So yeah, I guess the big take away here, Rosie, right, is just
consider your context. - [Rosie] Exactly. You're taking a look at the
situation that you're in, and considering what kind of language is going to be appropriate
in that situation. Is it going to be informal,
talking to your friend, or is it a formal dinner party where you would use different vocabulary and more formal language. - [David] The way our colleague
Grant described it to me, is this: it's useful to have a
tuxedo in your closet, but you wouldn't wear it to a beach party. - [Rosie] Exactly! - [David] So reserve your
formal and informal language for contexts when it is necessary. Just like you wouldn't wear formal shoes to the beach, neither would you show up, you know, in flip flops before
a joint session of Congress. - [Rosie] Exactly. - [David] Whether you're
writing or speaking, always consider your context,
consider your audience, and from that, consider the
way that you deploy language. You can learn anything. David out! - [Rosie] Rosie out!