Giving Opinions/
Summarizing/Agreeing and Disagreeing in English
adapted from The Language of Meetings by Malcolm
Goodale
Asking for an Opinion/Reaction
§ What’s
your opinion of…
§ What’s
your position on…
§ What
do you think of…
§ I’d
like to hear your views on…
§ Could
I ask for your reaction to…?
§ I
was wondering where you stood on…
Where exactly do you stand on…?
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Giving a Tentative Opinion
§ It seems to me that…
§ I would say that…
§ As far as I can judge…
§ I think it would be fair to say
that…
§ It could be that….
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Giving a Moderate Opinion
§ I think….
§ In my opinion…
§ It’s my opinion that…
§ As far as I’m concerned….
§ From my point of view…
§ It’s my belief that…
§
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Giving a Strong Opinion
§ I firmly/strongly/definitely believe
that…
§ I’m absolutely convinced that…
§ It’s my strong belief that…
§ There’s no doubt in my mind that…
§ It’s quite clear that…
§ I’m certain that….
§ It’s my considered opinion that…
§
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Summarizing
§ To summarize…
§ In short,…
§ Briefly, …
§ If I could just sum up ….
§ To sum up, ….
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Strong Agreement
§ I completely/totally agree.
§ I agree entirely.
§ Exactly!
§ I’m of exactly the same opinion.
§ I couldn’t agree more.
§ You’re exactly right.
§ That’s exactly right.
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Moderate/Partial Agreement
§ I think we’re in agreement on that..
§ I think I can go along with that.
§ I tend to agree.
§ I agree on the whole, but…
§ I agree in principle but…
§ By and large, I accept your views,
but…
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Moderate/Tactful Disagreement
§ I don’t completely agree with you.
§ I can’t say that I agree.
§ We’ll have to agree to disagree.
§ I’m not totally convinced by your
argument.
§ I feel I must disagree.
§ You have a good point but…
§ I take your point but…
§ I see what you mean but…
§ That’s a good point but…
§ That’s true but…
§ Yes, but…
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Strong Disagreement
§ I totally/completely disagree.
§ I don’t agree at all.
§ You’re completely mistaken.
§ I disagree entirely.
§ Under no circumstances could I
agree.
§ What you’re saying is just not
possible.
§ I really have to disagree.
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Softening Disagreement
§ Frankly,…
§ To be honest…
§ I’m afraid…
§ With (all due) respect…
§ To be frank…
§ Frankly speaking…
§
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Softening any “face-threatening” act
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