🌼Opinions in Everyday English 🌼

🌼🍓Opinions

in everyday English

🌼I think (that)
this is the usual way of talking about your opinions in everyday English:
I think that the law should be changed. | We always thought he was so cool. | Do you think that people should be able to work as many hours as they like?

warning Don’t use this phrase in essays and formal writing. See next page for written alternatives.

🌼I believe (that)
used when talking about strongly held beliefs, especially about moral issues:
I believe that the death penalty should be abolished. | I believe it is wrong to kill animals. | We firmly believe that the value of life is not measured by wealth.

warning I believe (that) sounds rather serious, and is used about things that you believe in very strongly.

🌼I feel (that)
used when talking about your opinions, especially when they are based on your general feelings:
I feel he is too old for the job. | I feel that appearances are very important. | I can’t help feeling that our main priority should be dealing with climate change.

personally/as far as I’m concerned
used when you want to emphasize your own personal opinion:
Personally, I don’t care how much it costs. | As far as I’m concerned, they should stop complaining and get on with their work. | He can say what he likes, as far as I’m concerned.

it seems to me (that) also the way I see it spoken/if you ask me spoken
used when giving your opinion about something, especially when there is a lot that you want to say about a situation:
It seems to me that the world would be a much better place if we didn’t rely so much on our cars. | The way I see it, there are only two real choices. | If you ask me, they should give kids fewer tests, not more.

warning Using these phrases will give you time to think about what you want to say. In addition, it is a good idea to vary your language and use them instead of always saying ‘I think that ...’

🌼in my opinion/view
used when talking about your opinions, especially about serious subjects:
In my opinion, he’s mistaken. | It is, in my view, one of the finest buildings in London. | Learning Chinese characters is, in my opinion, the most time-consuming and difficult part of the language.

warning Don’t use in my opinion in formal essay writing. See next page for written alternatives.
warning Don’t say ‘according to my opinion’.

🌼speaking as
used when introducing your opinion by mentioning something important about yourself, which makes you able to talk about it from personal experience, or affects your feelings about it:
Speaking as a regular user of the railway, I can only say that the service has gone down in recent months. | Speaking as a mother of two young children, I feel really concerned about the future of our planet.

in formal written English

warning In formal written English, you usually avoid using phrases that begin with ‘I’, and ‘in my opinion’ when writing about your opinions. In essays, it is often better to quote other people’s opinions to support your argument, rather than saying ‘I think that ...’ This will give your argument more authority.

in this writer’s view/opinion also it is this writer’s view/opinion that
used in formal writing instead of in my opinion:
This is the most important section of the book, in this writer’s opinion. | It is this writer’s view that the new city centre is a great improvement on the old one.

as sb points out/notes/remarks
used when referring to another writer’s opinions, and what they have said:
As Lowry points out in her article, teaching does not have the same status as research. | As Dawkins notes in his discussion of the evolution of the eye, ‘eyes have evolved between forty and sixty times, in many different invertebrate groups.’

express the view/opinion that
used when referring to another writer’s opinions, and what they have said:
Freud himself expressed the view that some dreams may be forgotten because they are too upsetting. | Thomas Jefferson expressed the opinion that for a state to be healthy, it needed to have a revolution every 20 years.

according to sb
used when saying what other people, organizations, reports etc have said:
According to the researchers, ‘some patients tended to see their illness as a punishment’. | Locally-grown food can be better for the environment than organic food, according to a report published yesterday.

warning Don’t say ‘according to me’ or ‘according to my opinion’. You can only use according to when saying what other people, reports etc have said.

be of the opinion that/take the view that
used when saying what someone’s opinion is:
6 out of 10 EU citizens were of the opinion that the European Union should have a single currency. | The Court took the view that he had acted legally.

it is sb’s belief that
used when saying what someone believes to be true:
It is our belief that children should enjoy their time at school. | It was their belief that certain individuals were born with criminal tendencies.

for sb
used when saying what someone’s opinion is, especially when this is a general opinion that affects their other ideas about a subject:
For Dawkins, genes are everything, or at least they can account for everything. | For Ruskin, art was something that could not be produced using machines.

from sb’s point of view/standpoint
used when saying how someone’s situation affects their opinion:
From the farmers’ point of view, it is better to have too much rain than none at all. | From a business standpoint, it made perfect sense to combine the two operations together.