Hello everyone. My name is Emma, and in today's
lesson we are going to look at ways to give your opinion. So this video is very useful for
anyone who will be writing the IELTS exam, the TOEFL exam, as well as anyone who wants to
become a better speaker or a better writer. Okay, so in this video we will first look
at some common expressions we use to give our opinion, and we will look at ways to strengthen
these expressions to make them stronger and to show that we feel very strongly
or not so strong about something. Okay, so let's begin. I have here the most
common way to give your opinion: "I think..." So why do I have an "x" here? Well the problem
is students overuse "I think..." "I think this, I think that, I think this, I think
that." It gets very boring. And so if you're doing the TOEFL or the IELTS, the problem
with using "I think..." is you're going to get a lower mark because that's considered
basic English usage. So in order to get a higher mark or if you're just interested in
becoming a better speaker or writer, I've listed some expressions that will really help
aid you in expressing your opinion. So let's look at some other expressions you can use.
And these all pretty much mean "I think..." So the first expression: "As far as I'm concerned," okay?
"As far as I'm concerned,...". Okay, one question you often get on IELTS, on TOEFL
is: "Should boys and girls go to the same school or should they go to different schools?"
What I could say or I could write: "As far as I'm concerned, boys and girls should go
to separate schools." Okay? One thing that's important to note: there's a comma. "As far
as I'm concerned," and then you write your opinion. Okay? Our next expression:
"In my opinion,..." This is better than "I think" -- it's still a bit
overused though. So I would recommend using some of these other expressions. But "In my
opinion,..." is still okay to use, just don't use it too often. "In my opinion, in my opinion,"
-- I guess if we use the same example as before --, "boys and girls should go
to separate schools." Okay? Our next expression, again, it means the same
thing as "I think...", it's just a nicer way to say it. I've given you two options. You can
say: "It seems to me that..." or "It appears to me that..." These are excellent to use in writing.
So if you're doing the TOEFL essay where you give your opinion on something,
agree or disagree essay, or the IELTS essay this is a good one to use. One question
that's often asked in the TOEFL and I think also the IELTS: "Do parents make
the best teachers? Do you agree or disagree?" So I could say: "It seems to me that parents
do make the best teachers.", "It seems to me that parents do not make the best teachers."
Notice one other thing about this expression, whereas we have a comma here and here, "It
seems to me that..." there's no comma. Okay? So any time we have "that", you
don't have to worry about a comma. Okay, our next expression: "I would argue
that..." So again, we have "that", no comma. "I would argue that the death penalty is not
a good form of punishment." Often times, the TOEFL may ask you if you agree or disagree
with the death penalty. You could use: "I would argue that the death penalty is the
best way to deal with criminals." So it all depends on your opinion, but you can either
agree or disagree with this statement. Another way to say "I think...": "From my
point of view," or "From my perspective," Okay? Notice we have a comma for both of these.
"From my point of view," okay, so now I'm not going to use an IELTS or TOEFL example,
I'm going to use a superhero example. "From my point of view, Cyclops is a horrible superhero."
So again, just for anyone who likes to argue, this is a good one to use. The last
one is a very high formal way of saying your opinion. "I am inclined to believe
that..." So you wouldn't use this with your friends. If you have an argument with your
friends, maybe you're talking about the best place to live in the world or the best place
to travel to, if you said: "I'm inclined to believe that France is a great place to visit."
Your friends would find your language too formal. But you can use this in writing, in
formal writing. If you're writing the TOEFL or the IELTS, you can use this expression. And
again, at the end we have "that", we don't have a comma. Okay? So be aware that if you
use any of these expressions with "that", when you write them you do not need a comma
whereas for the other ones that don't have "that", use a comma and then write if you
agree, or disagree, or what you think. Okay, so now we're going to look at some commonly
spoken expressions. These were written expressions -- or you can speak them --, now we're just
going to look at some spoken expressions. Okay, so in the IELTS there is a speaking
section where you talk to an examiner and what they're looking for is normal language use.
So they want you to use everyday language, everyday expressions when you speak and give your opinion.
They don't really want you to use very high academic, high level, pompous
language; I don't know a better way to put it. They don't want you to use complicated language.
They want you to use everyday language when you talk to the examiner. So I
have here four expressions. So whether you want to improve your speaking and become
a better conversationalist with your friends or do well on the IELTS speaking section,
these four expressions are really good for giving your opinion when you
say it, not when you write it. So the first one I have: "If you
ask me, _______." "If you ask me, Star Trek is better than Star Wars." Now of
course that's not an academic example; they would never ask anything like that on the IELTS.
They'd probably ask you: "Do you think books are better than movies?" Or "Do you think
living in a city is better than living in a town?" Another way to give your opinion:
"To be honest, _______." -"To be honest, I think living in a city
is better than living in a small town." -"Personally speaking, I think city life
has more to offer than country life." -"From what I gather, people enjoy living in
a city more than they enjoy living in the country." Okay? So these are
all just spoken ways to give your opinion. Okay, another way to score high on both the
TOEFL and the IELTS, this has to do with both the written section and the speaking section, is
to show contrast with other people's opinions. Okay? So instead of just saying: "I think
that this is good because...", "I think that is horrible because..." A better thing to do
is contrast your opinion with other people's opinions who you disagree with. So you may say
something like: "Some people may disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned... As far
as I'm concerned..." --what's a good example? -- "Travelling by car is better
than travelling by airplane." Okay? And when you contrast, words that they'll be
looking for that will help boost your mark: "although", "even though". So these are contrast
words that can really help you in writing. So you could say: "Although some people may
disagree with me," -- you get rid of the "but" if you use one of these two words. -- "Although
some people may disagree with me, as far as I'm concerned watching Lord of the Rings, all
three episodes back-to-back is a bad idea.", "Even though some people may think that making
a lot of money is great, I think that there are other important things to life." So these are just various opinions. They ask
you all sorts of different things on the IELTS and the TOEFL. But if you can use "although",
"even though"... and it's two parts. So the first part is what other people think, comma
if you're writing this, and then you have an opinion expression: "as far as I'm concerned...",
"in my opinion...", "I believe..." and then you say what you think. So this will
really help your IELTS or TOEFL mark. So sometimes when you're asked your opinion,
people want to know if you agree or disagree with a statement, and they want to know: how
much do you agree or disagree? So one question you will often see on IELTS or TOEFL, they'll
say a statement, so for example: "Do you think people with more money are more successful
in life?", "To what extent..." -- or sorry, they'll say: "People in life with more money are
more successful." So they'll say a statement, and then they'll ask: "To what extent do you
agree or disagree with the following statement?" It's a very common essay question
in both the TOEFL and IELTS. So what we're going to look at now is: how
can we add a degree to our answer for our opinion? Okay? So where you see the blue:
"somewhat", "partially", "I suppose I _______", I'll go over those in a minute, but these
are all ways to say: "Uh, I kind of agree." So you're not strong in what you're saying;
you're kind of on the fence. Whereas if you see this red line: "I am confident that...",
"absolutely", "totally", "strongly", "completely", this section is when you're very sure of your
opinion; you feel very strongly about something. Okay? So let me give you some examples. So
the example I just gave: "People with more money are more successful. Do you agree or
disagree, and to what extent do you agree or disagree?" So what I could say is: "I somewhat
agree." Meaning not 100%, but I agree a little bit; I somewhat agree. "I partially agree."
Could also say: "I suppose I agree with that statement." "I suppose I agree that people
with more money are more successful." But again, this shows you're not 100% sure. Whereas if I say: "I am confident that people
with more money are more successful." It means you're sure. "I absolutely agree that people
with more money are more successful." In this case, with "absolutely", you probably wouldn't
write this, but this is a good thing to say to maybe an IELTS speaker. Same with "totally"
-- it's not formal English, you wouldn't use this in an essay, but in speech you might
say: "I totally agree with that statement." "Strongly" can be used in an essay. "I strongly
agree that teachers are very important to the education system." "Completely", again,
like "totally" and "absolutely" is... you wouldn't use it in academic writing so much.
You would use it in speech if in the IELTS exam somebody asked you your opinion, you might
use "completely", "totally", or "absolutely". So the reason I'm telling you that these are good...
you can get higher marks on both the TOEFL and the IELTS if you add a degree to your opinion.
So instead of just saying: "I think..." it's good to use one of the expressions
I taught you. "As far as I'm concerned,", "If you ask me," these are all great expressions,
as well as it's good to give a degree to the expression. -"How much do you agree?" -"Strongly",
"Somewhat", "Completely". Okay? So if you ask me, anyone who uses these tips, they are
going to improve their mark for the IELTS and the TOEFL. I am confident of that. If you want practice to make sure that you
understand these expressions and can use them correctly in a sentence, come visit our website
at www.engvid.com. Okay? Until next time, good luck and take care.
