Informal Structures
B1 · IntermediateSpoken English GrammarI think you're right. I'm gonna call you. And then we left. — the relaxed grammar of everyday speech.
What you'll learn
- 'That' is often dropped after verbs like think, believe, say, hope when it introduces a clause: I think (that) you're right
- Common reduced spoken forms: gonna (going to), wanna (want to), gotta (got to), hafta (have to), dunno (don't know), kinda (kind of)
- Starting a sentence with 'and,' 'but,' or 'so' is completely natural in speech and increasingly accepted in less formal writing
- The subject/auxiliary at the start of a question is often dropped in fast casual speech: (Are) You okay?
- None of these are 'incorrect' — they're markers of an informal register, and should be avoided in formal writing and professional communication
The relaxed grammar of speech
Casual spoken English has its own set of everyday shortcuts that differ from careful written English — not because they're 'wrong,' but because speech favors speed and economy over formal precision. Recognizing these lets you understand native speakers easily and sound natural yourself in relaxed conversation, while knowing exactly when to switch back to full forms.
Dropping 'that'
After verbs like think, believe, hope, say, and know, 'that' introducing the following clause is very often dropped in speech — the sentence is just as clear without it.
Reduced spoken forms
A small set of very common verb phrases get pronounced — and often written casually, like in texting — as a single reduced word: gonna, wanna, gotta, hafta, dunno, kinda, sorta.
Starting with 'and,' 'but,' or 'so'
Despite an old classroom rule against it, starting a sentence with a conjunction is completely standard in speech, and common in informal or narrative writing. It's simply avoided in very formal registers.
Watch out
Reduced spoken forms like 'wanna' and 'gonna' are fine in speech and texting, but they read as unprofessional in formal writing like emails, applications, or reports.
Don't confuse 'informal' with 'ungrammatical' — these structures are simply suited to a relaxed register, not errors to eliminate everywhere.
Real life — Texting a friend vs. writing to a professor
"gonna be late, stuck in traffic!"
"no worries, see you when you get here"
(later, in an email) "Dear Professor Lee, I am writing to let you know that I will be a few minutes late to class due to traffic."
"Good call switching it up for the email — that would've looked pretty casual for a professor."
Practice
Exercise 1 · Identify the correct description
'I think (that) you're right.' Dropping 'that' here is...
Exercise 2 · Choose the informal reduction
Which is the informal spoken reduction of 'going to'?
Exercise 3 · Choose the informal reduction
Which is the informal spoken reduction of 'want to'?
Exercise 4 · Choose the informal reduction
Which is the informal spoken reduction of 'got to' (meaning 'must')?
Exercise 5 · Identify the correct description
'And then we just left.' Starting a sentence with 'And' here is...
Exercise 6 · Choose the appropriately casual sentence
Which sentence uses an informal reduced form appropriately for casual speech?
Exercise 7 · Choose the sentence to avoid in formal writing
Which sentence would you avoid in a formal job application email?
Exercise 8 · Identify the dropped word
'She said (that) she'd call.' Which word is naturally dropped in casual speech?
Exercise 9 · Give the informal reduction
Give the informal spoken reduction of 'have to' (meaning 'must').
Exercise 10 · Rewrite informally
Rewrite informally, dropping 'that': 'I believe that she's right.'
Exercise 11 · Sort the forms into groups
0 / 8 sorted
Quick challenge
Five quick questions to check what stuck.
Question 1 / 5
Score: 0/0
'I dunno' is the informal reduction of...
You learned
- 'That' is often dropped after think/believe/say/hope before a clause.
- Common reduced forms: gonna, wanna, gotta, hafta, dunno, kinda.
- Starting a sentence with and/but/so is natural in speech.
- The subject/auxiliary in a question is often dropped in fast speech: (Are) you okay?
- These are informal-register features, not grammar mistakes — avoid them in formal writing.
Related grammar lessons
Spoken Question Patterns
Learn the question patterns that are specific to casual speech — declarative questions (a statement with rising intonation), echo questions expressing surprise, preposition-final word order, and informal tags like 'right?'/'yeah?' — distinct from the formal grammatical rules for building questions and tag questions.
Short Forms and Ellipsis
Learn how casual spoken English drops the subject and/or auxiliary at the start of a sentence — Got it!, Want some?, See you later!, Been waiting long? — a specifically conversational pattern, distinct from the structural ellipsis found in comparisons and after auxiliaries.
Response Expressions and Short Responses
Learn the everyday reaction expressions native speakers use to respond in conversation — No way!, Fair enough, Sure thing, Me too/Me neither, I bet — distinct from grammatical short answers, these are fixed conversational tokens you simply learn as chunks.
Spoken Patterns
Learn to recognize and use the natural performance features of live, unplanned speech — false starts, mid-sentence self-correction (repair), and repetition for emphasis — normal, fluent features of real conversation rather than mistakes to eliminate.