English does not have formality encoded in its grammar.

No, instead it's in the vocabulary. ;)

Many of the most basic words of English exist in more formal and less formal versions. Compare horseman and equestrian, or eat and dine, or smell and fragrance, or hug and embrace.

Many of these apparent redundancies derive from the period when Britain was ruled by native French speakers, who tended to use a lot of French- or Latin-derived words.

I certainly wouldn't claim that spoken English doesn't encode plenty of formality:

  *Sir, would you care for an aperitif?*

  *No, I ain't hungry.*

Though American culture tends to be deliberately sloppy about who speaks formally to whom, especially compared to what I know of German culture.