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!