131 Serai Rd.,

Bijapur,

November 7th, 1939.

My dear Narayan,

    I am very sorry that you are having trouble with your motor-bike and hope that it will not cost you much. It will perhaps be all the better that we go by train so early, as it will give us time for some practice before the match starts. It is good to get one’s eye in, you know. I will certainly be at the station by 9.30. But you must on no account think of buying my ticket. So long till Saturday.

Yours,

Srinivasa.

3 Temple Rd.,

Mayangama,

May 3rd, 1939.

My dear Pramodha,

    Thank you very much for your kind invitation to your birthday party. Mother says I may go, and she also said she would be glad to be rid of me for a day, I am such a noisy fellow. So look out for me about one minute past ten. I’ll bring my flute and play for you in the garden, such wonderful tunes that the bulbuls will come to listen, and the mangoes will fall off the branches with joy. Nothing will stop me from coming.

Your friend,

Dinesh.

No. 309 Dharmapala St.,

Kandy,

May 2nd, 1999.

Your friend,

Pramodha.

My dear Tanuja,

    We are going to have an entertainment at our school next Wednesday, and I am sending you an invitation card.

    I do hope you will be able to come.

    We shall have physical drill exercises, and after that there will be a concert in the main hall. A lady who is principal of a girls’ college in Kandy is going to give us a short lecture on how to keep well.

    Then we shall have tea all together. I want you to sit at our table. You will find many nice things which the girls have made themselves.

The Railway Hospital,

Dumriyanagaraya,

Dear Pradeep,

    Thank you for your letter. I am sorry to say that I am laid up with influenza. Burn this note as soon as you have read it, for fear of infection. My father and brother are all down with this wretched illness. It makes us very weak. I can hardly hold the pencil, and my head throbs with pain like a heavy machine. So I am afraid it will be many days before I can do anything with a cricket-ball.

    Very sorry, and good luck to you and the team.

C/o Dr. D. V. J. Harishchandra,

Mihiripanna Thalpe,

Galle.

Dear Kali,

    You have not been to school for some days. I hope that nothing is the matter with you. We have missed you at cricket practice, as you are the best bowler we have.

    The day after tomorrow we have to play against the Maharaja’s College, as you know. We cannot do without you on that day. Please send a note by the servant who brings you this letter, and let me know that you will be ready to join us.

No. 9 Tisbambe Road,

Gama,

September 18th, 1999.

My dear Herath,

    It was very nice to have your letter. I am glad that you are going to be a collector. It is a very good thing to have a hobby of that kind. You will find that you will learn many things that will astonish you. And whatever you collect, it will give you something to think about, and will take your thoughts from unpleasant matters. You will not have any dull or lonely hours, if you really study something earnestly.

    You ask me to advise you. Well, you know there are many things you can collect which cost nothing at all. Books and coins can be very expensive. But stones, and leaves or seeds, cost nothing, and yet they can give you knowledge that may bring you fame. Many of our greatest naturalists, such as Sir Jagadis Bose, have become what they were by studying simple things. Ordinary things of which we take little notice arc so full of wonder.

    Then there are many things in books which are worth collecting. Why should we leave beautiful things locked up in books? One of my teachers has a number of notebooks into which he has copied out passages of prose and poetry. They are mostly short pieces, and there are many thousands of them. You may think that a .very large .number. But he has made a habit of copying things that give him pleasure,, and has been doing it for over .twenty years. Now 20 years of 365 days make 7,300 days. Three passages a day would make 21,900 passages. And it does not lake long to copy three short passages. But it does take time to find them. It means that you have to be a lover of reading. And if you read much in good books you lift yourself into a higher world, and become a fit companion of great men. One day if you come here, I will ask my teacher to show you his notebooks, and his index to all the good things he has collected.

Your friend,

Ananda.

999 Park Lane,

Mookalana,

September 9th, 1999.

Your friend, 

Herath.

My dear Father and Mother,


    It was very kind of you to send me such a kind letter and that money order, which will come in very useful. Some of my classmates had a picnic with me today out in the woods, and I used some of the money for that. The rest I will take care of.

    I am quite excited to know what you have bought for me for my birthday. But the three weeks will quickly go; And then I shall be with you both.

333 Market St.,

Colombo 9,

December 12th, 2012.

Your affectionate,

Father.

1. Your own address and the date should be written at the top right hand of the first page,— the street and number, the village or town, and the date in this way:




2. If you are writing from a school, the address will be of this kind:


3. Your letter will begin in one of the following ways:

My dear Mother,
My dear friend,
Dear Kalinga,
Dear Shamali,
Dear Uncle, etc.

# It is just a little more intimate or affectionate to write My before dear.

# This salutation or greeting is written at the left hand side of the page.

4. Then will come the body of the letter. It may be very short, of only one paragraph. It may be long, with a number of paragraphs. You begin writing it under the last word of the salutation. You may write your letter just as you talk, if you can. If you do so, it will make a very interesting letter. You must not think that there is a special kind of English used in writing letters. Once there was, but it was never so very different from spoken English, Urdu, Japanese and many other Eastern languages even now have what is called epistolary style, which is very different from the spoken language. But in English letters we may be as free as we like, unless we are writing to some important personage.

5. At the end of your letter you close like this:


# If the letter is not to a member of your family or some dear friend you would end it like this:

# If you are writing to a stranger, or to business firm, you begin:

Dear Sir! (or Dear Sirs!)

and end:

 
6. When you have written a letter you put it into an envelope and address it. The address is written in three or more lines. The first line begins well towards the left side of the envelope, about two-thirds of the way up, and it contains the name of the person to whom you have written. The second line starts below the first, but a little more to the right. It gives the street or road and the number of the house. The third line, under the others, but -still more to the right has the name of the village, town or city to which the letter is going. If the letter is going abroad, that is, out of the country, the name of the country is written still lower down, at the right or the left, as you please.

N.B. Letter Writing also helps e-mail (email) / chat / talk.
[BrE = to post a letter. AmE = to mail a letter.]

# It is a good thing to learn to write letters in English. Nowadays thousands of boys and girls all over the world are writing to each other, although they have never met and may never meet. In many countries there are boys and girls who would be very glad to have letters from boys and girls. English is the language in which it is laid the most easy path for people of different countries to correspond.

# It is very good practice for you to write letters in English to the members of your own family who know English, and to your friends. This is because when you are learning a foreign language you must write something in that language every day. Of course it would not be easy to write letters every day. You will often find that when you sit down to write a letter you cannot think of anything interesting to say. If you met your friend, you would talk to him freely, but when you have to write to him you hesitate, and think, and forget what you wanted to say. But there is a very good way by which you can prepare for writing letters. That is, to keep in your pocket a small note book in which you write notes of any interesting things you have seen or heard of. This is not easy at first, because you have to translate things from your own language into English. But if you persevere you will be very pleased. Your English will improve steadily, and when you have to write a letter, you will have plenty of things to say.

# Before you begin there are several things to learn that are usual in English letters.

Let them splash around in the pool for a while.
Don't let her upset you.
Let your body relax.
He'd eat chocolate all day long if I let him.

[# 'd
1. Had: He'd already left.
2. Would; should: I'd rather walk than drive.
3. Did: Who'd you ask?

# d' = the short form of 'do'
D'you know how many people are going to be there?

# d'you
D'you is a shortened form of `do you' or `did you', used in spoken English.
What d'you say so?]

Help.

01. To give assistance to; aid:

 
I helped her find the book.
He helped me into my coat.

# Help, however, sometimes conveys a stronger suggestion of effectual action: 

Nothing will help.
I'll help you move the piano.
He helped her out of the car.

02. Note that in the patterns help to do something or help someone to do something, you can leave out the 'to' and say help do something or help someone do something: 

Cleaner water will help prevent disease.
Money to help people build new homes.

Make.

01. To cause somebody/something to do something:

She always makes me laugh.
This dress makes me look fat.
What makes you say that (= why do you think so)?
Nothing will make me change my mind.
You make me so angry.

02. If you make someone do something, you force them to do it.

# FORCE = compel, oblige, constrain, require, impel, dragoon, press.

You can't make me do anything.
My parents always make me do my homework before I go out.
I was made to wait four hours before I was examined by a doctor.
I won't go and you can't make me!
She makes me go to bed early.”

"1. More readily; Preferably.

In expressions of preference rather is commonly preceded by would or in formal style should: 

We would rather rent the house than buy it outright.
I should rather my daughter attended a public school. 

# The use of had in these constructions may now be more infrequent than it once was but is still encountered in reputable writing: 

I had rather be dead than be a slave.

2. Used to mean 'fairly' or 'to some degree', often when you are expressing slight criticism, disappointment or surprise:

The instructions were rather complicated.
She fell and hurt her leg rather badly.
I didn't fail the exam; in fact I did rather well!
It was a rather difficult question.
It was rather a difficult question.
He looks rather like his father.
The patient has responded to the treatment rather better than expected.
He was conscious that he was talking rather (= quite) too much. 

 
3. Used with a verb to make a statement sound less strong:

I rather suspect we're making a mistake.
We were rather hoping you'd be able to do it by Friday.

4. Used to correct something you have said, or to give more accurate information:

She worked as a secretary, rather, a personal assistant.
In the end he had to walk or rather run to the office.

5. Used to introduce an idea that is different or opposite to the idea that you have stated previously:

The walls were not white, but rather a sort of dirty grey.

6. You use rather than when you are contrasting two things or situations. Rather than introduces the thing or situation that is not true or that you do not want.

The problem was psychological rather than physiological.
When I'm going out in the evening I use the bike if I can, rather than the car.

7. On the contrary = instead.

He didn't call; rather, he wrote her a letter.

8. To some (great or small) extent.

It was rather cold.

9. To a degree (not used with a negative):

Rather tasty = Quite tasty.

Might Have + Past Participle (V3).

"1. Used when showing that something is or was possible:

The pills might have helped him.

2. Used to show that you are annoyed about something that somebody could have done:

Honestly, you might have told me!

3. Used to say that you are not surprised by something:

I might have guessed it was you!

4. Used to indicate that it is possible that something happened or was true, or when giving a possible explanation for something.

I heard what might have been an explosion.
She thought the shooting might have been an accident.

[might have = could have]

5. Used to indicate that something was a possibility in the past, although it did not actually happen.

Had the bomb dropped over a populated area of the city, there might have been a great deal of damage.

6. Used in expressions such as I might have known and I might have guessed to indicate that you are not surprised at a situation or a disappointing event or fact.

I might have known it was you!
I detest clutter, you know; I didn't know, but I might have guessed.
I might have guessed I'd get no sympathy from my family.

7. Indicating unrealized possibility:

I might have been killed!

8. Possibility: there is a possibility that it may happen or may be true, but you are not at all certain.

I suppose he might have missed the train.
I thought they might have gone home.

9. Somebody Should Have Done Something: used when you are annoyed because someone has not done something that you think they should do.

They might have cleaned up before they left.

May Have + Past Participle (V3).

"1. Used to say that something is possible:

He may have (= perhaps he has) missed his train.

2. Used when suggesting that it is possible that something happened or was true, or when giving a possible explanation for something.

He may have been to some of those places.
The chaos may have contributed to the deaths of up to 20 people.

3. Possibility: There is a possibility that it will be true but this is not certain.

Well, I may have been wrong.
They may have called while you were out.
She may have got lost.

"[# "May" indicates that you are more likely to do something. I may go to the store means I probably will go to the store. "Might" suggests that you are less likely to do something. I might go to the store means it's unlikely that I'll go to the store.

# Most of the time, the interchange of May and Might does not present a problem.”]"

Would Have + Past Participle (V3).