Free Formal Paraphrasing Tool

Paste a casual note, a chat message or a rushed draft and get it back in polished, professional language that says the same thing.

DocumentUntitled document

SynonymsBalanced

Protect names & numbers

Let’s rewrite!

Start typing, paste your text, or upload a Word, PDF or text file. Select any word to freeze it.

Your paraphrase will appear herePick a mode, add your text, then press Paraphrase. Click any word in the result for synonyms.

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Formal paraphrasing tool

What Formal mode does

The content is right but the register is wrong: a Slack message that has to become an email to a client, notes that have to become a report paragraph, a first draft written in a hurry. Formal mode lifts the register without adding anything. Formal removes contractions and slang, replaces casual phrasing with its professional equivalent, firms up hedges and restructures loose sentences into complete ones. The facts, the requests and the deadlines stay exactly as written.

How to use the formal paraphraser

Three steps, and the third is where the checking happens.

Paste the passage

Type it, paste it, or upload a PDF, DOCX, TXT or Markdown file. A sentence or a few paragraphs; the example below is one short passage.

Check the settings

Formal is already selected on this page. Leave the synonyms slider at Balanced for a first run, keep Protect names & numbers on, and freeze any term that must not change.

Read what changed

Every changed word is highlighted against your original. Click one for alternatives, edit the result in place, run it again for another version, or copy and download it.

Before and after in Formal mode

A real run of the tool, unedited, so you can judge the mode on what it actually returned.

Your text45 words

Hey team, just a heads up that the client wasn't super happy with the draft we sent over on Monday. They reckon the intro is way too long and the numbers in section 3 don't add up. Can someone take a look before Friday? Cheers.

Formal mode42 words

Dear team,

Please be advised that the client expressed dissatisfaction with the draft submitted on Monday. They consider the introduction excessively lengthy and have identified inconsistencies in the figures presented in section 3. Could someone review these issues before Friday? Thank you.

Monday, section 3 and Friday are untouched, the question is still a question, and the tool added a line break after the greeting because the result reads as an email. Generated by the paraphraser on 18 September 2026 in Formal mode at Balanced strength with Protect names & numbers on, printed here unedited.

What Formal mode changes

The three kinds of edit it makes, with the words from the example above.

Casual openers and sign-offs"Hey team, just a heads up" becomes "Dear team, please be advised"; "Cheers" becomes "Thank you". The greeting and close are the parts readers judge first.
Slang and idiom"Wasn't super happy" becomes "expressed dissatisfaction"; "they reckon" becomes "they consider"; "way too long" becomes "excessively lengthy".
Contractions and loose syntax"Don't add up" becomes a full clause about inconsistencies in the figures. Fragments become sentences.

What it leaves alone

A paraphrase is judged by what it does not touch.

Every fact, name, number and deadline"Monday", "section 3" and "Friday" survive untouched. Protect names & numbers is on by default.
The request itselfA question stays a question and an instruction stays an instruction; Formal changes how it is put, not what is asked.
Your length, roughlyFormal English runs a little longer than casual English, so expect a few more words, but it does not pad. If you need it shorter, run Shorten afterwards.

How far to move it

The synonyms slider sets the degree of change: Light, Balanced or Extensive.

Strength for FormalBalanced is the right default for Formal: it changes enough wording to lift the register and leaves the structure recognisable. Light only removes the obvious informality and can leave a sentence sounding half-dressed. Extensive (Pro) rebuilds sentences as well, which suits a paragraph that was never structured in the first place.
Protect names & numbersOn by default. Figures, dates, citations and organisations stay exactly as written. Switch it off only when a number itself is what you want reworded.
FreezeClick any word in the result and freeze it. A frozen term survives every later run of any mode.

Common mistakes with Formal mode

Five ways a formal rewrite goes wrong, and how the diff catches each one.

Confusing formal with long

Formal English is not padded English. If the result reads as pompous, run Shorten on it or drop the strength to Light.

Formalising a quotation

Text inside quotation marks has to match its source word for word. Paraphrasing a quote and leaving the marks on is a misquotation, however professional it sounds.

Losing the ask

Check that the request, the deadline and who it is addressed to are still there. Formal keeps them, but a rushed draft sometimes never stated them clearly, and a polished version of a vague ask is still vague.

Formal where friendly was right

A thank-you to a colleague or a note to a regular client can read cold in formal English. Use Formal for first contact, complaints, applications and anything that will be forwarded upwards.

Not reading the hedges

Formal mode can turn "seems" into "is" if the strength is high. In a report about findings that is a different claim. Read the highlighted words before you send.

Formal paraphraser FAQs

Is the formal paraphraser free?

Yes. Formal is one of the six free paraphrase modes, and you can use it without an account within the per-request word allowance shown next to the editor. Signing in raises the allowance; Pro removes the guest limits and the ads and adds the Academic, Creative and Custom modes and the Extensive synonyms level.

What is the difference between Formal mode and the Tone Changer?

Formal mode is a paraphrase: it rewrites the text into professional language and shows you every changed word. The Tone Changer offers a range of registers and audiences and can move in either direction. For "make this professional" Formal mode is the shorter route; for anything more specific, use the Tone Changer.

Will it turn my email into something stiff?

Balanced strength produces standard business English, not legalese. If the result reads stiffer than you want, switch to Light, which only removes the obvious informality, or edit the highlighted words in place.

Does it work for academic writing?

Formal lifts the register of ordinary prose. Academic mode, which is part of Pro, goes further: precise, objective and structured for a literature review rather than an email. For coursework and papers, Academic is the better fit.

Will the formal paraphraser change names, numbers or dates?

Not unless you switch Protect names & numbers off. It is on by default, so a figure, a date, a citation or an organisation stays exactly as written while the sentence is rebuilt around it. You can also click any word and freeze it so it survives every run.

Can I see what the formal paraphraser changed?

Yes. The result comes back with every changed word highlighted against your original, and you can switch to the original at any time to compare. Click a highlighted word for alternatives, edit the result in place, or step back to an earlier version.

After the rewrite

Check the grammar of the result, shift its register with the tone changer, or summarise it when you only need the gist. One plan covers every tool.

Grammar checker Tone changer Summarizer All modes

Run Formal mode

One page per paraphrase mode

Each page opens the paraphraser with that mode already selected, shows a real before-and-after the tool returned, and explains what the mode changes and what it leaves alone. Standard, the default mode, is the main paraphraser page; Academic, Creative and Custom are part of Pro and live in the mode menu above.

Fluency paraphraserFormal paraphraserText simplifier Sentence shortener Sentence expander