Informal Email

"Still, I'm practising" would be used to qualify something that you have written before. For example, "My written English still needs some work. Still, I'm practising daily so I expect it to improve."

"I'm still practising", on the other hand, means "I am continuing to practice".

You are going to spend time in a place that an English-speaking friend knows well. Write an email (150 – 190 words) to ask for some help in planning your trip. Remember to use a fairly informal style and include some of the language from this section.

Hi Natalie,

How are you? I hope all the family are doing ok.

This is a fairly common error, even with native speakers. "Family" is a singular, collective noun, but "are" is used for plural nouns.

A lot of people use this as a shorthand way of saying "I hope that all of the members of the family are doing OK".

I would say this as "I hope that your family is well". (There's nothing actually wrong with "doing OK", but it does sound a little more like they are just getting by and surviving, rather than being healthy and happy.)

I wanted to drop you a quick line to ask you a favour. I’m planning holidays and my boyfriend and I would love to visit London. Since we’re never been there I’d like to know if I could ask you some advice about it.

You want some advice; you don't want to know whether she will permit you to ask her for some advice (which is what the highlighted block does), since you do that in the next sentence anyway. If you want to make it a little more polite you could add "if you don't mind" to the end of the sentence. (Strictly speaking that's redundant as well, since again you ask the question anyway.).

We already know that London is expensive during Summer time but is there any chances you know of some places where we can stay for a while without spending too much?

"is there any" suggests that there might be one (singular) chance that they will know, not many chances plural. (Which is of course correct; either they know or they don't. To be continued because of Italki's character limits.

Part 2; please read part 1 first.

We usually prefer B & Bs rather than hotels, but we are considering hostels too.

You could also say "we prefer B&Bs (plural) to hotels"

Also, would you recommend doing tour guide EITHER doing a guided tour OR using a tour guide, or visiting the city by ourselves? We know that London is huge, but do you think 7 days are enough to visit it? We would like to try some local food, so if you have any advice about restaurants and places where to eat in London it will would be great.

1/ You don't need to say "places where to do something" because you're just describing the types of places that you are looking for.  "Where" would be used as an adverb; for example "I'm looking for a place where I can get a meal for under $20".

2/ "Will" is used to describe a future event that is expected to happen. "Would" is used when it's conditional. In this case, you would appreciate it IF she can give you that information.

I’m really looking forward to the trip because I have heard so much about London! Please get back to me when you can, since I know you are always busy with uni.

"I heard" is OK, but it suggests that something that happened entirely in the past with no connection to the present. I heard about this place 3 months ago". In this case you are probably still hearing things about London now, so "have heard" links it to the present.