Informal Letter Format (Friendly Letter)

What is an Informal Letter?

An informal letter is a personal letter to someone you know well — a friend, a cousin, a parent or a grandparent — written in your own warm, natural voice. The informal letter format is simple: your address and the date at the top, a greeting such as ‘Dear Riya’, a few paragraphs of news and feelings, and a loving sign-off with your first name. Leave out the address or the date, or slip into stiff office language, and an exam answer can lose marks for format, while a real letter loses the warmth that makes it worth keeping.

Students write informal letters in school English lessons and exams: to a friend about a holiday, a prize or a new school, to a parent from a hostel, or to a younger brother or sister with advice. Outside school, people still write them by hand for birthdays, festivals, congratulations, thanks and apologies, to pen friends, and to grandparents who would rather hold a letter than read a phone screen. The same format works for a long, personal email to a relative; only the address at the top drops away.

The parts are the same everywhere, but the details change. In Indian schools, CBSE, ICSE and the State boards each decide whether an informal letter appears in a given class’s paper, and set the word limit and marks; these change between syllabuses, so check the current syllabus and sample papers for your board and class. Teachers also differ on small points, such as whether the address and date sit at the top left or the top right. In the US, where it is called a friendly letter, the format taught in school has five parts — heading, greeting, body, closing and signature — and the heading is often just the date.

An informal letter is not a formal letter with friendlier words. A formal letter goes to an office, a business or an official about one matter; it carries the receiver’s designation and address, a subject line and a set close such as ‘Yours faithfully’. An informal letter has none of these: it goes to one person you know, can move from news to feelings to plans, and ends with your first name. If you are writing to a principal, a bank or an editor, use the formal letter format, even if you know the reader personally.

What to put in an Informal Letter

These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.

How to write an informal letter

1. Put your address and the date at the top

   Write your address, without your name, at the top of the page, and the date beneath it; the form on this page sets both out for you. The reader needs the address to write back, and the date tells them when your news is from. Write the month as a word, as in 2 November 2026, so nobody has to guess. In an exam, use the address the question gives you, and set it out as your board’s sample papers do.

2. Greet the person by the name you call them

   Type the name you actually use for the person — Riya, Amma, Papa, Dadi, Grandpa — and the letter opens with ‘Dear’ and a comma: ‘Dear Riya,’. A pet name or a relation name is right here, because the reader is close to you. Do not use ‘Sir’, ‘Madam’ or a surname, and leave out the receiver’s address and any subject line; those belong to formal letters.

3. Open warmly, then say why you are writing

   Begin by connecting with the reader: thank them for their last letter, ask after their family, or mention what made you think of them. Then say, within the first paragraph, why you are writing — to share news, invite them, congratulate them, thank them or say sorry. ‘I hope you are well’ is a fine first line, but do not stop there; a reader who waits a whole paragraph for the news loses interest.

4. Give each piece of news its own paragraph

   Write one topic per paragraph — your exams, a family wedding, the new puppy — and type each paragraph on a new line in the form. Add the small details only you would notice: what someone said, how the food tasted, how you felt. Write the way you would talk to this person, contractions and all, but avoid text-speak such as ‘u’ and ‘gr8’, which looks careless on paper and is out of place in an exam answer.

5. Close with love and sign your first name

   In the last paragraph, ask the reader to write back, mention when you will next meet, or send greetings to their family. Then choose a sign-off that fits the relationship: ‘Your loving friend’ for a friend, ‘Your loving son’ or ‘Your loving daughter’ for a parent, ‘Yours affectionately’ or ‘With love’ for anyone close. Under it, write only your first name or the name they call you, with no surname or designation.

Informal letter examples

Two sample informal letters in the school format, one to a friend and one to a parent. Change the names, places and news so that the letter is truly yours, and in an exam keep to the word limit your board sets.

Common mistakes

• Adding the receiver’s address, a subject line or ‘Yours faithfully’ mixes the formal and informal formats, which reads oddly to a friend and can cost format marks in an exam.
• Leaving out your own address or the date means the reader cannot easily write back or tell when your news was written, and in an exam both are part of the format.
• Filling the first paragraph with ‘I am fine here and hope you are fine there’ and nothing more delays the real news and makes the letter read like a memorised model answer.
• Writing the whole letter as one long paragraph hides the separate pieces of news, so the reader skims, and an examiner cannot see the opening, body and closing.
• Using text-speak such as ‘u’, ‘pls’ and ‘gr8’, or emojis drawn on the page, makes the letter look careless and is out of place in an exam answer.

Frequently asked questions

This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.

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