Formal and informal language
Cànan foirmeil agus neo–fhoirmeil
We understand in English that most of us use different language to deal with different situations.
Most of us speak more formally in formal situations, in the workplace, or job interviews, to the police, to a minister or priest, or to our managers.
We call this the rèim–chainnte (linguistic register) – using formal and informal language, grammar rules, structures and so on, according to the the situation.
When we are learning another language this is much more difficult to do because formal established rules must be learned first, before learning which rules can be broken.
As happens in every language, people often shorten words and phrases in speech:
| A bh eil thu a' dèanamh a' bhìdh? | Eil thu dèanamh am biadh (a' bhìdh*)? | Are you making the food? |
| Cà it a bhe il thu a' dol ? | Cà' il thu dol? | Where are you going? |
| Tha mi an dòchas … | An dòchas … | I hope … |
Try reading these out loud. Where do you shorten these phrases in English? Listen carefully when you are with fluent speakers and native speakers.
*Many speakers don't use the genitive form (correctly), especially in informal speech.
You may hear either the nominative form dèanamh am biadh , or the genitive article without the genitive slenderisation of the noun: dèanamh a' bhiadh , rather than dèanamh a' bhìdh ✅.
There are more examples and more information about this at 7A Duilleag Mìneachaidh and at gramar–g.scot.