Expressing Opinions: You must have observed that, in real life, many people express themselves or put forward their opinions without using an opening phrase. Although this is acceptable and not wrong, it is better to express yourself with an opening phrase in professional or formal circumstances.
You don’t need to memorise all the phrases, and you should choose only a few of them that feels most natural to you and practice them whenever you can. In this article, we will learn some phrases you can use to express your thoughts and opinions with poise.
Different Ways of Expressing Opinions
- Common Phrases
- Formal Phrases
- Expressing Agreement and Disagreement
- Asking for Opinions
- Add Strength to Your Opinion
- Expressing Doubt in Your Opinion
- Expressing a General Point of View or Stating Facts
- Concluding or Deducing Words
Common Phrases
The following phrases are suitable in everyday speech and writing, such as on personalised websites and blogs:
- I think …
- I believe …
- I feel that …
- In my opinion …
- I would say …
- In my view …
- I tend to think that …
- I suppose that …
- It seems to me that …
- As far as I know …
- In my experience …
Formal Phrases
The phrases listed below are more common in formal situations, for example, in a business meeting or a conference:
- From my point of view …
- From my perspective …
- In my view …
- It seems to me that …
Expressing Agreement and Disagreement
To express agreement, you may use short and clear statements. You can express your agreement by using any of these phrases:
- So do I.
- Me too.
- I agree.
- I couldn’t agree more.
- I strongly agree with you.
- You’re quite right.
Expressing disagreement can be tricky at times, such as in discussions of serious subjects or in professional situations, where these phrases can be too direct. For such times, your words should be more polite and balanced.
So, instead of being blatantly direct, you might say one of these:
- I’m not sure I agree with you about …
- I’m sorry, but I don’t agree.
- I can’t entirely agree with you on …
- I’m afraid I have to disagree.
An alternative to disagree in a polite way is to start by telling the person that you respect their opinion before sharing your own with these kinds of phrases:
- I understand where you are coming from, but …
- You have a point there, but …
- I see what you’re saying, but …
Asking for Opinions
If you have expressed yourself and want to know about the thoughts of others, phrases like these help us to reach out to people for their opinions:
- What do you think of…?
- What are your thoughts on…?
- How do you feel about…?
- What’s your opinion on…?
Add Strength to Your Opinion
In a situation where you want to make the statement more substantial, you can do so by adding an adverb or adjective such as:
- I really think …
- I strongly believe …
- I truly feel …
- In my honest opinion …
- I’m sure that …
- I have no doubt that …
- I’m absolutely convinced that …
- There is no doubt in my mind that …
- I dare say that …
- I bet that …
Expressing Doubt in Your Opinion
If you are unsure of something or want to put forward a neutral opinion, definitely try out these phrases:
- I am not sure/certain, but …
- I must admit that I’m unsure …
- I’m not satisfied with …
- I’m not convinced that …
- I doubt that …
Expressing a General Point of View or Stating Facts
To express a general point of view or sometimes even state certain facts with these words and phrases:
- It is often said that …
- It is generally accepted that …
- It is considered …
- Apparently …
Concluding or Deducing Words
After your entire write-up or speech, it is essential to conclude your opinions so that it stays in the mind of the readers or listeners. To do so, you may start with some of these phrases listed below:
- Finally …
- In a word …
- In brief …
- In conclusion …
- In the end …
- On the whole …
- Thus, to conclude …
- To summarise …
- To sum up …
- In summary …
- In conclusion, we can say that …