Starting a sentence with "pity"

This is a casual form that is acceptable in conversation and in chatty written English. It is not suitable for formal writing.

Of course, in full it should be "It's / It is a pity (that) ...".

Hi,

Yes, 'pity . . ' is casual, but on the other hand 'costly' is not a casual word.



Pity it costs so much.

Pity it's so expensive.



Clive

I'm grateful, Mr. Wordy and Clive!

Am I to understand that "costly" is not as natural as "expensive"?

Is "costly" formal and "expensive" informal?

Tom

Mr. TomIs "costly" formal and "expensive" informal?

To me, no. I would happily use both words at all levels of English -- conversational or formal -- though "expensive" comes to me slightly more readily and I'd guess it's a more common word.

Test. Please ignore.

Mr WordyTest. Please ignore.

I didn't understand this, Mr. Wordy? What should I ignore?

Tom

Mr. TomI didn't understand this, Mr. Wordy? What should I ignore?

The message that reads "Test. Please ignore" was purely a test message (I have been having problems with the site). Ignore that message (and only that message).

Mr. Wordy, it's not only you who has been having problems with the site. Believe me, since morning many of my posts disappeared before they made their way on the screen and then I had to duplicate the effort.

I typed some of my last posts on MS Word first, then did copy and paste.

Tom

Which is right

it is a pity that my daughter failed this year or it is pity that my daughter failed this year