Learn the Top 10 MustKnow Expressions for Agreeing and Disagreeing in English
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Vamos a la piscina, that means “we’re
going to the movie theater”, right?
Alright! Hi everybody, my name is Alisha.
Welcome back to Top Words. Today we’re
going to be talking about must know
expressions for agreeing and disagreeing,
very useful, so let’s go!
Exactly. When you agree 100% with something someone
else has said, you can say exactly.
For example, ramen is one of the best
food in the world. Exactly.
I don’t agree.
You have a different opinion from the other
person, they tell you, I think that soccer
is the best sport, you can say, I
don’t agree. But be prepared to provide
your own opinion after this. I think
soccer is the best sport I don’t agree, I
think that football is. Oh! that could
cause some problems! Soccer/football.
Americans say football when we mean
American football, but the rest of the
world says football when they mean
soccer. Maybe. Maybe is when you don’t
know, when you can’t make a decision, or
when you’re not sure about something.
Okay so someone tosses you an opinion,
someone says they’re their idea to you, I
think it’s gonna rain tomorrow, you can
say, yeah maybe. You don’t know for sure,
yes or no, but it’s possible, it’s a good
sort of in-between expression, but if you
use maybe all the time, it’s going to sound
really strange, and it’s going to sound
like you can’t make a decision. So use
maybe very sparingly, don’t use it so
often. Maybe is very commonly used as a
soft no, it’s up to you to figure that
out among the people that you’re talking
to then. You want to stay over my house
this weekend? Maybe.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
You are in complete agreement with the
other person, and really want to
communicate that to them. You think that
what they have just said is really
really correct, super correct, yes! You are
completely on board with that idea, you
can say “I couldn’t agree with you more”.
I couldn’t, the negative form, I could not
agree with you more, meaning it’s not
possible that I could agree more with
what you’re saying.
Next week it’s really important that we
have a barbecue because summer is ending.
And then your friend can say, I couldn’t
agree more! That’s a fantastic
big idea, I’ll buy steak.
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree.
Agree to disagree, this is a kind of, it
seems like a simple phrase, agree to
disagree.
So you’re agreeing with the other person,
you agree that we have a different
opinion,
agree to disagree. I would use this
expression at the end of a discussion, so
person A and person B have different
opinions and they’ve been discussing
those opinions for a long time, and
person A is not changing his or her
opinion, person B is not changing his or
her opinion, so you can say at the end of
the conversation, okay we have to agree
to disagree.
Let’s just accept our different opinions
and move on in the conversation.
You have a point there.
This is not necessarily and an agreement
or disagreement phrase, it’s a small
agreement within a larger discussion, so
maybe you’ve been discussing a topic for
a long time, and you disagreed with the
other person until this time.
This person says something and you agree
with that, ah, you have a point there. So
there’s one thing that this person has
said that you can agree with, you can say
you have a point there.
I think that’s correct, or I agree with
that point.
That’s exactly how I feel.
Meaning, my feeling is the same as you’re
feeling, or my opinion is the same as
your opinion, that’s exactly how I feel.
Maybe you can use this if someone
describes your feeling very accurately,
for example, you can say, I feel like the
company is really heading in a nice new
direction, you can say, yeah, that’s
exactly how I feel. I really like the new boss.
I don’t think so.
It’s soft, it’s not so direct, it’s not a
hard “I disagree”, but just I don’t think so.
Of course you can use it to discuss
opinions but you can also use it when
you’re making plans. Are you going to
that party this weekend? I don’t think so.
It’s not a disagreement but it
can be used as a negation phrase, and a
negative response to something. When used
as an opinion, I think Chinese is the
hardest language to learn, you can say, I
don’t think so, I think that Arabic is
the hardest language to learn.
Ye,s you’re right!
means you’re correct, yes, I agree with you, I
think that’s the right information, I
think that’s the correct opinion. Just a
very clear agreement phrase, you’re right.
It also has the nuance of being correct,
so maybe there was
a possibility the other person could be
incorrect. Did you know that pepperoni
pizza is the most delicious pizza in the
world?
Yes, you’re right. You can change it to
that’s right for that opinion. You can
use you’re to talk specifically about the
person itself, but that’s right, yes,
that’s right, that information is correct.
I guess so. I guess so, it’s an
agreement but it’s sort of a flaky
agreement, I guess so. It’s like you don’t
really want to make a decision but you
don’t feel strongly in one, like, in
agreement or disagreement, you can say I
guess so.
It’s usually said with this tone of
voice, I guess so. You know, we don’t say I
guess so!
Generally it’s like you can’t quite make
a decision or you don’t want to make a
decision, you can say I guess so.
Hey, we’re gonna go for Chinese food for
dinner tonight, you wanna come? Yeah I
guess so. You don’t feel strongly either
way. I guess so.
I’m afraid I disagree. It’s a rather polite
expression that you can use in a
business situation, for example. I’m
afraid here doesn’t mean I’m actually
scared or I’m really frightened, but just
it’s a softener that’s used at the
beginning of sentences to introduce a
negative opinion. So I’m afraid I
disagree, or I’m afraid I can’t agree
with you,
for example. I think that you need to
adopt a new policy for your company.
I’m afraid I disagree. It’s a soft
disagreement that sounds a bit more
formal than some of the other phrases
we’ve talked about so far.
Absolutely. Absolutely means 100%
yes, exactly, precisely, definitely, it’s a
quick and clear and can be polite as
well as casual word that means you agree
with the other person. Hey, do you want to
go to the beach this weekend? Yeah,
absolutely! Absolutely! Oh, that’s the end!
So those are some phrases that you can use
to agree and disagree with other people.
There are a lot of them, and you can
kind of mix and match them as you see fit.
So give them a try. Thanks very much for
watching this episode of Top Words and
we’ll see you again soon. Bye!