Neformalios

Neformalios is the feminine plural form of the Lithuanian adjective neformalus, meaning informal. It is used to describe feminine plural nouns and signals that something is not part of formal structures or official arrangements. Examples of its use include phrases like neformalios grupės and neformalios veiklos.

In practice, neformalios appears in social sciences, education, culture, and everyday speech to denote informal, unofficial, or spontaneous aspects of social life. It commonly modifies nouns such as grupės (groups), veiklos (activities), pažintys (acquaintances), ryšiai (connections), and nuostatos (attitudes). The term often contrasts with formalus/formaliai or with the forms used for formal entities. In sociology, neformalios organizacijos describes informal organizations—networks and norms operating outside formal institutions. Various contexts emphasize voluntariness, flexibility, and non-binding rules associated with neformalios arrangements.

Origin and usage notes: the form is created with the negation prefix ne- attached to the base form alus of a word meaning formal. Neformalios functions as a regular inflected form in Lithuanian and is not a standalone noun; rather, it is a grammatical and semantic descriptor used across domains to indicate informal character or status.