Informal Recommendation Letter A possible letter task in the CAE is an informal letter to a friend recommending (or not) a course/activity/holiday you have been on. Below is an example: You have recently been on a two week adventure holiday in a foreign country. A good friend writes to you because they are thinking about booking a holiday with the same company. You should describe the highlights of the holiday and any problems you encountered and state if you would recommend the experience to your friend. Informal greetings Hello mate! How’s it going? What’re you up to nowadays? Lovely to hear from you. It’s been ages since we last saw each other. I hope all’s well. Mixing good with bad In the task you have to tell your friend about both the positive and negative sides of the activity. What I don’t want you to do is write one paragraph of good points and one of bad because who writes a letter like that? I want you to mix the good with the bad. Despite/In spite of + noun Despite/In spite of + the fact that + clause In spite of the dreadful weather (bad), we had a Despite the fact that it poured with rain all wonderful time. (good) week (bad), we had a wonderful time. (good) Although/Even though + clause Apart from + noun + relative clause Even though the instructor didn’t speak English Apart from the first day when it poured, we had (bad), we still managed to pick up the basics. clear blue skies every day. (good) Apart from the taxi driver who tried to rip us off, all the people were lovely. 2nd Conditionals If you did decide to go, I could lend you…../I If I were you, I’d……….. might come with you. If I were in your shoes, I’d……………… 3rd Conditionals It would have been better if there had I would have been better if I been………… had/hadn’t……………… If I had/hadn’t……………., we could have…………. Not only Not only did we 1 activity), but also Not only did we learn how to but also ….(do ……….., activity) …….(another …………… Not only did we see lions and elephants, but also giraffes and monkeys.
Informal Recommendation Letter A possible letter task in the CAE is an informal letter to a friend recommending (or not) a course/activity/holiday you have been on. Below is an example: You have recently been on a two week adventure holiday in a foreign country. A good friend writes to you because they are thinking about booking a holiday with the same company. You should describe the highlights of the holiday and any problems you encountered and state if you would recommend the experience to your friend. Informal greetings Hello mate! How’s it going? What’re you up to nowadays? Lovely to hear from you. It’s been ages since we last saw each other. I hope all’s well. Mixing good with bad In the task you have to tell your friend about both the positive and negative sides of the activity. What I don’t want you to do is write one paragraph of good points and one of bad because who writes a letter like that? I want you to mix the good with the bad. Despite/In spite of + noun Despite/In spite of + the fact that + clause In spite of the dreadful weather (bad), we had a wonderful time. (good) Despite the fact that it poured with rain all week (bad), we had a wonderful time. (good) Although/Even though + clause Apart from + noun + relative clause Even though the instructor didn’t speak English (bad), we still managed to pick up the basics. (good) Apart from the first day when it poured, we had clear blue skies every day. Apart from the taxi driver who tried to rip us off, all the people were lovely. 2nd Conditionals If you did decide to go, I could lend you…../I might come with you. If I were you, I’d……….. If I were in your shoes, I’d……………… 3rd Conditionals It would have been better if there had been………… I would have been better if I had/hadn’t……………… If I had/hadn’t……………., we could have…………. Not only Not only did we ….(do 1 activity), but also …….(another activity) Not only did we learn how to ……….., but also …………… Not only did we see lions and elephants, but also giraffes and monkeys.