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Agreeing and Disagreeing
Here are some phrases for agreeing and disagreeing in English.
Click for Audio
Agreeing
I agree.
So do I.
Me neither.
I don't either.
(Agreeing about a negative idea.)
(Agreeing about a negative idea.)
You're right.
That's right.
Good idea.
I think that's a good idea.Disagreeing
I disagree.
I don't think so.
(No.) That's not right.
Yes, but...
(I'm sorry, but) I don't agree.
Agreeing and Disagreeing in English
Sooner or later you will get the urge to agree or disagree with something that is being said in English. Offering an opinion can be difficult when it is not in your first language. You may know exactly what you want to say in your native tongue, but are unsure of how to express your views in English. You may also worry that your words will not come out properly or that you might hurt someone's feelings by being too forward. Although it is easier to sit back and say nothing at all, you will become bored or frustrated if all you can do is nod your head yes or shake your head no, especially if you have a strong opinion about something.
The best thing to do is to learn and practise some common expressions that are used in discussions and debates. For example, there is a difference between agreeing strongly or only slightly. Study the common expressions and practise saying them before you move on to the practice exercises. After you have completed the exercises successfully, find a friend or a group that you can practise debating with. Use the suggested topics, or make up topics of your own.
Expressions for Agreeing and Disagreeing
Stating an opinion
In my opinion...
The way I see it...
If you want my honest opinion....
According to Lisa...
As far as I'm concerned...
If you ask me...
Asking for an opinon
What's your idea?
What are your thoughts on all of this?
How do you feel about that?
Do you have anything to say about this?
What do you think?
Do you agree?
Wouldn't you say?
Expressing agreement
I agree with you 100 percent.
I couldn't agree with you more.
That's so true.
That's for sure.
(slang) Tell me about it!
You're absolutely right.
Absolutely.
That's exactly how I feel.
Exactly.
I'm afraid I agree with James.
I have to side with Dad on this one.
No doubt about it.
(agree with negative statement) Me neither.
(weak) I suppose so./I guess so.
You have a point there.
I was just going to say that.
Expressing disagreement
I don't think so.
(strong) No way.
I'm afraid I disagree.
(strong) I totally disagree.
I beg to differ.
(strong) I'd say the exact opposite.
Not necessarily.
That's not always true.
That's not always the case.
No, I'm not so sure about that.
Interruptions
Can I add something here?
Is it okay if I jump in for a second?
If I might add something...
Can I throw my two cents in?
Sorry to interrupt, but...
(after accidentally interrupting someone) Sorry, go ahead. OR Sorry, you were saying...
(after being interrupted) You didn't let me finish.
Settling an argument
Let's just move on, shall we?
Let's drop it.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.
(sarcastic) Whatever you say./If you say so.
Use of Any and Some
Read the conversation below: Barbara: Is there any milk left? Katherine: Yes, there is some in the bottle on the table. Barbara: Would you like some milk? Katherine: No, thank you. I don't think I'll drink any tonight. Could I have some water, please? Barbara: Sure. There is some in the fridge. Barbara: Do you know anybody who comes from China? Katherine: Yes, I think there is someone who is Chinese in my English class. Barbara: Great, could you ask him some questions for me? Katherine: No problem. Is there anything special you want me to ask? Barbara: No, I don't have anything in particular in mind. Maybe you could ask him some questions about life in China. Is that OK? Katherine: I would be happy to do that for you.
Positive Clauses
In positive clauses, we usually use some.- Example:
- I have bought some bread.
- I have bought some apples.
Negative Clauses
In negative clauses, we use any. Note, however, that any alone is not a negative - it must be not ... any- Example:
- I have not bought any bread.
- I have not bought any apples.
Questions
In questions, we usually use any.- Example:
- Have you bought any bread?
- Have you bought any apples?
Compound Words with some & any
Some & any can also be part of compound words such as:- something / anything
- someone / anyone
- somewhere / anywhere
- Example:
- I have bought some bread.
- I have bought something.
- Example:
- I do not have to buy bread. Rachel has already bought some [bread].
Exceptions
Positive Clauses with Any
We usually use some in positive clauses. But after never, without, hardly, we use any.- Example:
- We never go anywhere.
- She did her homework without any help.
- There’s hardly anyone here.
- Example:
- If there is anything to do, just call me.
Questions with Some
We usually use any in questions. But if we expect or want the other to answer ‚yes‘, we use some.- Example:
- Have you got any brothers and sisters? → some people have brothers or sisters, others don't - we cannot expect the answer to be ‚yes‘
- Would you like some biscuits? → we offer something and want to encourage the other to say ‚ja‘
The present perfect simple
The present perfect simple expresses an action that is still going on or that stopped recently, but has an influence on the present. It puts emphasis on the result.
Form of Present Perfect
Positive Negative Question
I / you / we / they I have spoken. I have not spoken. Have I spoken?
he / she / it He has spoken. He has not spoken. Has he spoken?
For irregular verbs, use the participle form (see list of irregular verbs, 3rd column). For regular verbs, just add “ed”.
Exceptions in Spelling when Adding ‘ed’
Exceptions in spelling when adding ed Example
after a final e only add d love – loved
final consonant after a short, stressed vowel
or l as final consonant after a vowel is doubled admit – admitted
travel – travelled
final y after a consonant becomes i hurry – hurried
Use of Present Perfect
puts emphasis on the result
Example: She has written five letters.
action that is still going on
Example: School has not started yet.
action that stopped recently
Example: She has cooked dinner.
finished action that has an influence on the present
Example: I have lost my key.
action that has taken place once, never or several times before the moment of speaking
Example: I have never been to Australia.
Signal Words of Present Perfect
already, ever, just, never, not yet, so far, till now, up to now
Expressions suggestions and advise
The following English words and expressions are all used to make suggestions and give advice to people.
should
"You should try to practise English."
"You shouldn't translate too much."
Why don't you
"Why don't you join an English club?"
ought to
"You ought to read more."
If I were you, I'd…
"If I were you, I'd watch more television."
*All these expressions are followed by a verb, without to. For example: "He should visit the Eiffel Tower." (Not "he should to visit the Eiffel Tower.")
suggest and recommend
Either use a verb + ing
"I suggest visiting the Eiffel Tower." (We should all go.)
OR use that + a verb without to
"I suggest that you visit the Eiffel Tower." (I'm not going.)
OR use a noun
"I recommend the lasagne." (It's a very good dish to choose in this restaurant.)
advise
"I advise you to buy a good dictionary."
advice
Advice is an uncountable noun. This means that we can't say an advice. Instead, we say some advice or a piece of advice.
"Let me give you some advice."
"She gave me a very useful piece of advice: to buy a good dictionary."
Speaking tip
Many people don't like getting advice if they haven't asked for it! To avoid giving the wrong impression, you can try some of these expressions:
"You could always…"
"Have you considered…"
"Perhaps we could…"
"Do you think it's a good idea to…"
Degree of comparison
adjective or adverb describes the relational value of one thing with something in another clause of a sentence. An adjective may simply describe a quality, (the positive); it may compare the quality with that of another of its kind (comparative degree); and it may compare the quality with many or all others (superlative degree).[1][2] In other languages it may describe a very large degree of a particular quality (in Semitic linguistics, called an elative).
The degree of comparison may be expressed morphologically, or syntactically. In English, for example, most monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives have morphological degrees of comparison: green (positive), greener (comparative), greenest (superlative); pretty, prettier, prettiest; while most polysyllabic adjectives use syntax: complex, more complex, most complex.
- The positive degree is the most basic form of the adjective, positive because it does not relate to any superior or inferior qualities of other things in speech.
- The comparative degree denotes a greater amount of a quality relative to something else. The phrase “Anna is taller than her father” means that Anna's degree of tallness is greater than her father's degree of tallness.
- The superlative degree denotes the most, the largest, etc., by which it differs from other things.
English usage
Traditional English grammar uses the comparative form when comparing exactly two things, and the superlative when comparing three or more, but in informal usage this may not hold.| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Better | Best |
| Beautiful | More Beautiful | Most Beautiful |
| Big | Bigger | Biggest |
| Tall | Taller | Tallest |
| Sincere | More Sincere | Most Sincere |
| Small | Smaller | Smallest |
Rhetorical use of unbalanced comparatives
In some contexts, such as advertising or political speeches, absolute and relative comparatives are intentionally employed in a way that invites a comparison, and yet the basis of comparison is not established. This is a common rhetorical device used to create an implication of significance where one may not actually be present. Although such usage is common, it is sometimes considered ungrammatical.For example:
- Always!
- Why pay more?
- We work harder.
- We sell for less!
describing process
Describing a Process or a Procedure
- Process: How something happens, takes place. Often uses Passive tenses
- Procedure: Giving Directions or Instructions. Usually in Active voice
Process
Describing a process means writing about how something is made or how something happens. Examples: the rainwater cycle, how coffee is grown, how glass is made, getting a driving license, starting a business.Introduction
First, look at these introductory pages which give information on the Active and Passive voice and when they should be used.- Layout of Process Essay
- More about the Passive
- Popcorn and Coffee: Passive and Active
- Using a Computer: Passive and Active
- Even more about the Active and Passive
- Exercise Sentences
- Changing a Tyre
- Exercise: Making Bread
- Expanding Your Essay: Adding Where or Why to each stage
- Gap-fill exercise Changing a tyre
- Process writing tips
Exercises with Resources, Videos, Background Information
Click for exercises on the following topics- Orange Juice! New!
- Chocolate Manufacture
- Giving Blood - watch the video presentation
- Paper Manufacture
- How Olive Oil Is Made: Reading and Exercise with Chart (pdf Acrobat file: 267 kb). Also see this page
- Making Glass
- Fish Canning
- How a Photocopier Works
- How Crayons are Made
- How Letters are Sorted
- Fuel Cell Technology in Cars
- How to Demolish an Apartment Block
- Adding Memory To Your Computer
- The Use of Waterjets in Engineering
- Changing a Car Tyre
- Making Jellybeans
- Stanford University site with processes
- Indigo and Tie-Dyed cloth from northern Guinea: a photo-story
- Popcorn
- How tabouleh is made + baba ganoush
- How the Pyramids were built: Past Tense and Passive
- Getting a Driver's Licence
- How Cups are Made
- Petrol Refining
- How to Build a Runway
- How to . . .
- Getting Married in the UAE!
- Describe how to make Arabic coffee
- Describe how to get a passport
- How to Skin a Cat *
Useful Links for Passive and Process
- How Coca Cola is made
- How Ice Cream is made. A BBC page
- How Peanut Butter is made, from PeanutButterLovers.com
- Botham & Co, UK Bakery site - step by step. They also have a more advanced site here
- Warburtons - a UK site, with pictures from a commercial bakery.
Vocabulary and Grammar for Writing About Process
Procedure
Quake rattles China, 400 People Killed
Shattered - An earthquake shook the province of Qinghai, China, Wednesday (14 / 4), resulting in an estimated 400 people died and about 10,000 houses were destroyed. (AP)
Thursday, April 15, 2010 BEIJING (AFP): A series of high magnitude earthquake occurred in the territory of Tibet, west China, killing at least 400 people and injuring thousands of others, Wednesday. A number of houses not only collapsed, but also hit a tree and covered in mud which caused many residents trapped inside.
Paramilitary police tried hard to save people using shovels improvise on the ruins of houses in the province of Qinghai where almost all houses flattened, like that broadcast over national television.
Local officials also said that heavy equipment can not be imported into this area because all the roads and the nearest airport which is very badly damaged. Rescue teams and equipment are imported also have difficulty reaching the area.
"The breakdown in telephone networks, the wind, and the aftershocks that continue to occur also hinder the process of recovery," said Wu Yong, one local military officials.
Rescue teams tried hard to launch water reservoirs because the quake has made cracks in several places in order to avoid this disaster areas from flooding.
Team U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale (SR) occurs at the Wednesday breakfast in southern Qinghai province, not too far from Tibet. The quake's epicenter was in the Yushu area with a population of 100,000 people. Most of the population are farmers and pastoralists.
The USGS also recorded an aftershock occurred six times in the next three hours and it's all over the 5.0 SR. China Earthquake Network Center terdahsyat recorded earthquake in the region reached 7.1 SR.
"This powerful earthquake forced the residents out of the house and soon witnessed a process of houses collapsed and flattened up covered in mud and the falling trees," said Nyima Karsum, Deputy Head of television stations in Yushu, who spoke by telephone with CCTV.
"In an instant, their houses collapsed. This remarkable earthquake. In a city park there is the Buddhist pagodas and now head of the Buddha had fallen and smashed. Residents poured into the street and stood in front of their house. They are also trying to find their relatives, "he said.
The death toll reached 400 people on Wednesday afternoon, according to published CCTV. Pubucairen medical officer, said the injured also continue to grow and now numbers more than 10,000 people.
According to existing data, this region is frequently rocked by earthquakes in the last two years after an earthquake measuring 7.9 Richter rocked the Sichuan province and caused nearly 90,000 people dead and missing.
This time the quake was very powerful and leveling homes, schools and other buildings and killed thousands of children who are learning. Fragility of building design and construction of less kukuhnya and lack of knowledge about building safe from earthquakes make this time of disaster victims ask for very much.
Jiegu, a city located 30 kilometers from the epicenter, also became one of the towns worst affected by the earthquake. Local firefighters trying to save 29 students trapped in school buildings. This is based on the statement Zifu Kang, rescue team leader, told a national television station. They also tried to pull out 40 to 50 people trapped inside the four-story building. However, there is no mention of what schools are collapsing.
More than 85 percent of homes collapsed in Jiegu, several buildings with large cracks in the walls are still able to stand upright. This is based on reports Xinhua, China's official news agency. "The streets are filled with residents who Jiegu panic and get hurt. They do not know where else to go in a situation like this," said Zhuohuaxia, one local official.
This is the Best Place Seeing UFO
INILAH.COM, Jakarta - Not only the location of Area 51 in the U.S. where the appearance of UFOs. The unidentified objects are also scattered throughout the world and no less fantastic.
Here's the best location to watch the UFO.
Puerto Rico
Unlike other sites, Caribbean Island is also famous for its "USO" or Unidentified Submersible Objects with various events involving colored lights that shoot across the water, going around El Yunque.
UFO researchers from around the world come here to study the phenomenon both within and at the depth of water.
Reported recent sightings occurred on January 23, 2010 in which a girl and her aunt while driving from Utuado to Bayamon strange sighting in the sky with four booster rockets.
Sochi Russia
City-style resort on the Black Sea is preparing the 2014 Winter Olympics. Witnesses have reported hundreds of sightings in this area. One example is the object whizzed over the Riviera city of Russia, with the level of high speed and then disappear before hitting the water. Some believe the mountain is the headquarters Bytkha extra terrestrial and gateway between the world.
There are no recent sighting reports. But in December 2009, a pyramid-shaped UFO seen and filmed in the Kremlin in Moscow and one of the largest sighting in Russia, or anywhere else in the last few years.
Wiltshire, England
For 50 years, residents flocked to beruyun-rural areas which include Stonehenge and Silbury Hill crop circle. Moreover, night lights are pulsating and the emergence of a mysterious booming sound. De facto UFO hunters often congregate Wiltshire.
Report the latest sighting on February 20, 2010 in Hilperton, a woman observed a large object flying low in silence, with two white lights suddenly change course and fly.
Mexico City, Mexico
Observe the largest mass UFO fleet sighting occurred in the afternoon on 11 April 2005, when thousands of people witnessed the first object 7. Then came the 100-200 ball glow filled the sky to appear in formation and then conduct an independent air maneuvers.
Report the latest sighting on December 13, 2009, a "worm sky" seen flying over the city.
Triangle Falkirk, Scotland
More than 2,000 area residents since 1990 claimed to see something strange in the night sky on the outskirts of Stirling and Edinburgh. Strange light changed shape and color to dishes and windows shiny with blinking lights.
Report the latest sighting on 29 November 2009, where local residents from Maddiston record a meteor shower and saw a big ball of red and white fly in a straight line. [Ito]
10 Amazing Natural Phenomenon
10. Ice Circles
Ice circle phenomenon very rarely occurs in cold temperate waters. big ice circles can be found in Scandinavian and North America.
9. Red Tides
8. Columnar Basalt
7. Sun Dogs
Phenomenon where the sun is consists of 3 pieces.
6. Moeraki Boulders
Round-shaped stones that are on the beach, formed by the pounding of the waves, which are well known in Côte Koekohe.
5. Penitentes
Natural phenomena that only occur in places between Chile and Argentina, that is snow on the surface of a high and sharp as a strong wind in the Andes Mountains.
4. Light Pillars
Krn visual phenomena created by light reflection.
3. Catatumbo Lightning
Lightning is a great grabs with a height 5 km. Occurred 140 to 160 times even at night in the 1st year. Strokes occur each evening during the 10 Hours. Hourly rate of approximately 280 times swoop.
So in one year approximately 448,000 times a stroke. This occurs because the collision Thunderstorms winds originating from the Andes Mountains. That said, this lightning-forming ozone layer is the greatest on earth
2. Cave of the Crystals
Containing a crystal cave located at the mining site in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1. Pink and White Terraces
Warm water pool was the largest recorded 3 acres, before kehancuranya this phenomenon into "The Eighth Wonder of the World". Read More world events