Agreement and 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
 agreement

In agreeing with an unfavorable opinion, you may wish to

qualify your agreement with an expression of regret, etc:

(A) His speech was boring

(B) Yes, I’m afraid it was

(B) I have to agree that it was

(B) I must say I found it so

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

(A) It was an interesting exhibition, wasn’t it?

(B) (Yes,) it was superb/absolutely splendid, etc

(A) A referendum will satisfy everybody

(B) (Yes,) definitely/quite/absolutely/ I quite/absolutely

agree/ I couldn’t agree more
(A) A referendum won’t satisfy everybody
(B) Definitely not
It certainly won’t
You’re absolutely right, it won’t
I agree (that it won’t)
 Tactful disagreement

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:

(A) English is a difficult language to learn

(B) I’m afraid I disagree with you: some languages are even
more difficult, I think

(B) True, but the grammar is quite easy

(B) Yes, but it’s not so difficult as Russian

Partial or qualified agreement

In discussion and argument, there is often a need to agree

with one aspect of a speaker’s view, and to disagree with
another. Here are some of the methods you might use to
express this sort of qualified agreement (x and y here stand
for statements, and x and y for noun phrases).

Certainly it’s true that x, but on the other hand y.

I can see that x, but surely y.

I’m in total agreement with you/Jones/etc about x, but we

also have to consider y
 corroboration

We can also agree, and add a further point to corroborate or

confirm the argument:

Yes, and in fact x

Yes, and what is more, x.

I agree, and in fact one might go so far as to say x.

Absolutely. Actually, I would go further, and say x.

 assignment

Discover five statements from online articles and do the

following:

1. Show your agreement with an expression of regret.

2. Show your agreement with enthusiastic.

3. Show your tactful disagreement.

4. Show your partial or qualified agreement

5. Show your agreement by adding a further point to

corroborate or confirm the argument