Expressing Agreement/Disagreement

Agreement and disagreement are types of affirmation and denial in which the expression of JUDGEMENT or OPINION rather than the assertion of FACT is involved. It is all the more necessary not to offend standards of politeness when the other person’s judgement is in question.

AGREEMENT

In agreeing with an unfavourable opinion, you may wish to qualify your agreement with an expression of regret, etc.

His speech was boring

/ Yes, I am afraid it was. I have to agree that it was. \ I must say I found it so.

In other cases, you can be as enthusiastic as you like in emphasizing your agreement.

It was an interesting exhibition, wasn’t it? – Yes, it was superb/absolutely splendid!
A referendum will satisfy everybody. – Yes, definitely/quite/absolutely/I absolutely agree/I couldn’t agree more/I quite agree/ I agree entirely.

A referendum will not satisfy everybody. – Definitely not/It certainly won’t/You are absolutely right, it won’t/ I agree that it won’t.

It’s good practice and it’s good fun. – Exactly.
I feel I ought to give her a hand – Oh, quite, quite.
I must do something, though – Yes, I quite agree.
There is far too much attention being paid to these hoodlums – Yes I couldn’t agree more.
The public showed that by the way it voted in the General election – That’s quite true.
We reckon that this is what THEY would have wanted us to do. – I think you are absolutely right.

You can show that you agree strongly with someone’s description of something by repeating the adjective they have used and using "very" in front of it. You usually use “indeed” after the adjective.

It was very tragic, wasn’t it – Very tragic indeed.
The pacing in all these performances is subtle, isn’t – Oh, very subtle, indeed.

Other ways of expressing agreement are:

That’s just what I was thinking.
You know, that’s exactly what I think.
That’s a good point.

 DISAGREEMENT

Notice that you need to be very polite when disagreeing with someone in English – even someone you know quite well. When you deny or contradict what someone else has stated, the effect is often impolite, unless the denial is qualified in some way. You can qualify it by an apology or by adjusting to the speaker’s point of view:

English is a difficult language to learn.
-I am afraid I disagree with you: some languages are even more difficult, I think.
Or
- TRUE, but the grammar is quite easy.
Or
-Yes, but it’s not so difficult as Russian.
Or
-Do you think so? Actually, I find it quite easy.


The commonest ways to express disagreement are as follows:

Yes, that’s quite true, but…
I’m not sure I quite agree.
Well, you have a point there, but…
Perhaps, but I don’t think that…
I see what you mean, but…

Rather than simply expressing complete disagreement, people usually try to disagree politely using expressions, which soften the contradictory opinion they are giving "I don’t think so" and "Not really" are the most common of these expressions.

It was a lot of money in those days – Well, not really.
It’s all over now, anyway. – No, I am afraid I can’t agree with you there.

People often say “Yes” or “I see what you mean”, to indicate partial agreement and then go on to mention a point of disagreement, introduced by “but”.

You’ve just said yourself that you got fed up with it after a time. - Yes, but only after three weeks.
It’s a very clever film. – Yes, perhaps, but I didn’t like it.
They ruined the whole thing. – I see what you mean, but they didn’t know. 

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