Learn English – Which of the following sentences is more formal

word-choice

I don't know which of the following is more formal in writing.

1) I am going to give my children food, clothes , and other things.

1) I am going to give my children food, clothes , and other stuffs.

Best Answer

"Stuff" is informal, especially when used as a de facto pronoun. "Stuffs" is normally used as a verb, not as a plural pronoun.

"Thing" is a standard pronoun, so it can be used in both formal and informal writing. "Things" is a normal plural pronoun.

I am going to give my children food, clothes, and other things.

sounds formal. "I am going to", "give", and "children" are all formal choices of words.

I am going to give my children food, clothes, and other stuff.

sounds informal enough to almost seem incorrect. Using "kids" instead of "children" would make the sentence more consistently informal. Using colorful metaphors (like "put clothes on my kids' backs" or "put food in my kids' bellies") would also be more consistently informal than "give my children <things>".

In informal speech, it is normal to use contractions for some words. Even in informal writing, it is normal to transcribe these words using the full words. Thus, your written "I am going to give" might be spoken informally as "I'm gonna give".

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