expressing agreement in English

AGREEING / DISAGREEING

Once other people in the meeting have expressed their opinions, you can react by agreeing or disagreeing. Here are some appropriate phrases for this purpose – again, based on degree of strength.

Strong agreement:

• I completely agree.

  • I completely agree with my manager regarding the timeline.

• I'm convinced that you are right.

• I couldn't agree with you more.

  • A: To live a good life, you need good money.

  • B: I couldn't agree with you more.

• I couldn’t agree more.

• You’re absolutely right.

  • A: I think that we should reduce our expenses.

  • B: You’re absolutely right.

  • A: I think we should hire a QA engineer.

  • B: You’re absolutely right.

Normal agreement:

• Exactly!

  1. We are using the X library, aren't we?

     1. Exactly!

• I see it the same way.

  1. We shouldn't be driving in the middle of a snow storm!

  2. I see it the same way!

  3. I see it the same way he does.

• That’s just how I see it.

  1. We shouldn't bother the CTO with this problem.

     1. That’s just how I see it.

• I’m with Pavel on this.
  (you can use this phrase to refer to another colleague’s opinion)

  1. Pavel told me that we need to use this library.

  2. I’m with Pavel on that.

Partial agreement:

• Well, it depends.

  1. Which library should we use on this project?

     1. Well, it depends on a lot of things.

• I agree with you up to a point, but…
  (this means that you agree with some of the opinion, but not all of it)

  1. We should refactor the entire code base this weekend!

     1. I agree with you up to a point, but we should get some interns to do the work for us!

• I agree with you in principle, but…
  (this means you agree with the opinion in theory, but not in practice)

  1. Honey, I think we should quit our jobs and move to the mountains.

     1. I agree with you in principle, but what will we do without the Internet?

Normal Disagreement:

In English, saying “I disagree” can be a little too direct, and may be considered impolite. Use one of these phrases instead, to disagree diplomatically:

• I’m afraid I disagree.

• I’m not so sure about that.

• I see it differently.

• Yes, but…

• Not necessarily.

Strong disagreement:

Finally, here are some phrases for disagreeing strongly. The words “I’m sorry” make the phrase more polite.

• I’m sorry, but I completely disagree.

  1. We need to create a mock-up of our application.

  2. I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. We need to consider the architecture first.

• I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with that at all.

Settling a disagreement:

What do you do if you’re in charge of a meeting and people are arguing? Use one of these phrases to settle the disagreement and continue the meeting:

• We don’t seem to be getting anywhere with this, so maybe we could discuss it further at another time.

• Let’s move on. I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree.