What does switching between formal and informal do and how do I use this feature?
In the formal/informal menu you can easily switch between formal and informal forms for translation into certain languages. The choice determines the pronouns and related words used in your translation.
For example, the phrase "Thank you for using DeepL Pro!" can be translated to German differently depending on the situation and social relationship between the speaker and the target audience. In a formal context, the pronoun "Sie" is used, so the formal translation could be Vielen Dank, dass Sie DeepL Pro verwenden! In an informal context, the pronoun "du" is used, so the appropriate translation could be "Danke, dass du DeepL Pro benutzt!"
We currently support the following languages for formal/informal translations:
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Italian
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Japanese (For Japanese, you have the option to switch between a polite and plain tone, which is different from formality. For more information, see About the plain/polite feature in Japanese.)
- Polish
- Portuguese (Available for Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese)
- Russian
- Spanish
More languages will be added in the near future.
Change formality
To change the grammatical formality of your text, do the following:
- Open Automatic next to the language pair selection
- Select from the options Automatic, Formal, or Informal.
The selected level of formality is applied to the translation.
You can switch between the following options:
- Automatic: detects the appropriate level of formality for your source text and uses the corresponding option for formality in the translation
- Formal: applies formal grammatical forms to the text of the translation regardless of the source text
- Informal: applies formal grammatical forms to the text of the translation regardless of the source text
For information on the formality feature for DeepL Write, see this article.