Formality Adjuster
Your text
Adjusted version
Paste a sentence — the adjusted version builds as you type.
Every change
No paired expression in the table appears in this text.
Scope and limits
Only expressions in the published pair table are changed, and the score is a count of markers rather than a judgement of tone. A plural or inflected form of a table entry is left alone.
Formality is not correctness. A contract that reads casual and a birthday note that reads formal are both problems — the choice belongs to the writer and the audience.
The formality adjuster moves prose toward a more formal or a more casual register using one published table of paired expressions, and scores the text as written from the markers it counts.
What is Formality Adjuster?
The formality adjuster is built on a single published table of paired expressions. Each row holds a casual phrasing and its formal counterpart — kids and children, figure out and determine, boss and supervisor, right away and immediately, cannot and can't — and the same table serves both directions, so the tool can never disagree with itself about what formal means. Choosing a direction matches one side of every pair in your text and replaces it with the other.
Matching goes through the shared phrase engine, which means whole phrases only, longest first, with overlaps dropped and the source spelling preserved. Get in touch is a single row and is never partially matched by get; a phrase that is not in the table is never touched. Possessive forms are handled explicitly, because an apostrophe sits outside the word boundary the matcher uses: kids' becomes children's rather than children followed by a stray apostrophe.
The score is a count, not a judgement. Casual markers and formal markers are counted in the text — the table entries plus a short list of common contractions — and the difference is banded into Informal, Neutral or Formal. A message full of contractions and phrasal verbs lands at the informal end; a paragraph built from require, sufficient and establish lands at the formal end. The number is reported with both counts so the reader can see what produced it.
Formal writing and a casual tone are both legitimate; the variable is the audience. A style guide that insists otherwise is describing its own house style, not a rule of the language.
That transparency is the point. Formality is a property of the relationship between writer and reader, and no tool can know whether a given document should read formally. A resignation letter, a policy and a message to a friend are all correct at different points on the scale, and the tool's job is to move the text and show its working. The writer decides whether the destination is right.
Vocabulary is not the only lever, and the page says so. Sentence length, contractions, the passive voice and direct address all carry register too, and this tool touches only the words in its table. When a document needs to sound more formal than a word swap can make it, the notes point at the structures rather than pretending the substitution was enough.
Practically, the adjuster is most useful in the last pass before sending something. A support reply that has drifted casual, a policy written in the voice of a chat message, a cover letter that reads like a text: each is a few substitutions away from the register it needs. Copy the adjusted version, read it once for tone, and keep the changes you agree with. Nothing is uploaded, and the original stays on the page beside the result.
For brevity rather than register, the {{simplify-text-tool|Simplify Text Tool}} is the better next step, and for prose that has lost its actor, the {{active-voice-converter|Active Voice Converter}} recasts the passives.
A useful test after adjusting: read the result aloud. Register is heard before it is seen, and a sentence that sounds like a stranger usually still needs a substitution or two.
How to use Formality Adjuster
- Paste the message or paragraph you want to adjust.
- Read the formality score, its band and the casual and formal marker counts.
- Choose More formal or More casual as the direction.
- Review the change list — every substitution is listed with its source.
- Copy the adjusted version and read it once for tone before sending.
When to use Formality Adjuster vs related tools
Use the formality adjuster when the content is right and only the tone is off: a support reply that reads too casually, a policy that reads like a chat message, or a covering note that needs to sound less stiff. The substitutions are listed, so nothing changes without being visible.
For drafts that are padded rather than misjudged, the Simplify Text Tool replaces wordy phrases and splits long sentences. When register is fine but the prose has lost its actor, the Active Voice Converter recasts the passives that name one.
Privacy & Security
This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.