Improve Your English Conversations: How to talk about opinions

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, we are going to talk about

opinions. I'm going to teach you how to ask for someone's opinion, how to

acknowledge someone's opinion, and how to give your own opinion. So, these are

all really important skills, especially in today's society. So, let's get

started.

So, how do you ask for someone's opinion? Imagine this: There is an

election. You need to decide who is going to be the leader of your country.

You don't know a lot, so you want to ask your friends what they think about

different leaders. So, what might you ask them? Well, you could ask them:

"What do you think about _______?" You might ask somebody: "What do you think

about our current president?" Or if you're talking about something else,

maybe: "What do you think about healthcare?", "What do you think about

education?", "What do you think about celebrities?" So, this can be anything

you're interested in.

Now, what I want you to really focus on is just some of these words I've

underlined. Many English-language learners forget this word: "do". So, we

say: "What do you think about _______?" Notice I also underlined the word

"about". This goes with the word "think". Okay? So, you need to remember

this preposition. "What do you think about _______?" And that just means:

"What's your opinion on this topic?"

Let's look at some other expressions that mean the same thing. Now, we have

the word "how": "How do you feel about _______?" This has the same meaning as:

"What do you think about _______?" It's just a different way to say it. So, we

can say: "How do you feel about your country?", "How do you feel about the

environment?", "How do you feel about children today?" So, these are different

ways to ask someone for their opinion. And, again, notice I've underlined the

word "do". Please don't forget the word "do" when you're asking those questions.

"How do you feel" and, again, just like above, we have "about" as the

preposition in this question.

Let's look at another way to ask for somebody's opinion. We can also say:

"What is your opinion on education?", "What is your opinion on learning

English?", "What is your opinion on Mickey Mouse?" Okay? You can ask people

their opinion on anything. Notice, though, the preposition we're using

here. After the word "opinion", we have this little word "on", and then you can

say the topic. So: "What is your opinion on the TV show, Friends?" for example.

Okay.

Another thing we can ask is we can ask people for their opinions on a specific

person. Sometimes maybe we're talking about a celebrity, or maybe we're

talking about somebody famous — we can ask our friends or people we know their

opinions about that person. We can say: "What is your opinion of Madonna?" So,

notice number three and number four are a little bit different. Here, we have

the word "on", and here, we have the word "of". We use "of" when we're asking

someone's opinion of a person, whereas we use "on" for a topic. "What is your

opinion of him?", "What is your opinion of the President?" for example.

Okay, let's look at another way to ask for opinions; and again, there's so many

ways. We can also say: "What are your thoughts _______?" This means the same

thing as: "What do you think _______?" "What are your thoughts on alcohol?",

"What are your thoughts on drugs?", "What are your thoughts on smoking?"

Again, we have our preposition; I've underlined it. Notice it's: "What are

your thoughts on" and then you can give the topic you're interested in. So,

these are five different ways to ask someone for someone's opinion. Now let's

look at what you can say to someone when they give you their opinion.

Okay, so you have asked someone for their opinion on something. Now, what do

you say after they give you their opinion? Well, it's good to acknowledge

what someone says. So, here are some ways to do that. You can say: "I hear

what you're saying." This means that you're acknowledging that you have heard

their opinion. "I hear what you're saying." You might even say it in this

slang way. Sometimes in conversation, we just say: "Oh, I hear you." or "I hear

ya." Okay? Both are possible. "I hear what you're saying.", "I hear you.", "I

hear ya." They're ways to acknowledge somebody's opinion.

We can also say: "I see where you're coming from." This means: "I understand

your opinion." It doesn't mean I agree with your opinion, but it means I

understand your opinion. "I see where you're coming from." Or, I can also say:

"Oh, I see your point." Again, this doesn't mean: "I agree with your point",

but it means that I understand what you are saying. So, it's an acknowledgement.

So, these are great to say when someone gives you their opinion.

After this, you can then give your opinion. You can say: "I see your point,

and I agree" if you agree with what they said. You might say: "I see your point,

and I partially agree". "Partially" means you agree with some of what they

said, but not everything. Or maybe the person said something and you do not

agree at all. What can you say? Well, you can say: "I see your point, but I

disagree.", "I see where you're coming from, but I disagree." Or: "I hear what

you're saying, but I disagree." Maybe you really disagree. In that case, you

can say: "I strongly disagree." or "I really disagree with you." We can add

those words — "strongly" or "really" — to make our disagreement even stronger.

Okay.

What are some ways we can give our opinion? So, we've talked about how to

ask for someone's opinion and we've talked about how to acknowledge

someone's opinion, and to say whether or not we agree or not. We can also give

our opinion. There are many different ways to do this. Sometimes we say: "To

be honest". When you hear someone say: "To be honest", it's a signal. It means

they're going to give you an opinion. "To be honest, I like cats more than I

like dogs." That's not true. "To be honest, I like dogs more than I like

cats.", "To be honest, I really like our healthcare system." Okay? So, "to be

honest" is a way to show you're going to give your opinion. You can also say: "In

my opinion". "In my opinion, dogs are better than cats.", "In my opinion,

coffee is better than tea." Okay. So, these are just some ways to give our

opinion. And again, there are many different ways. It's always good to have

at least two or three ways that you can give your opinion, and to practice

those. So that way, when someone asks you for your opinion, you're ready to

go.

So, thank you for watching this video. It would be great practice if you

actually, in the comments, ask for our opinion on something. You can ask each

other. You can use some of the vocabulary you learned in today's

lesson, and write a question in the comments. "What is your opinion on

English?" for example, or: "What do you think about learning English?" You can

use some of these opinion words as well, like: "To be honest, I love learning

English. English grammar is the best thing ever." Okay? Or maybe you might

say: "I disagree with Emma. I do not like English grammar." So, please write

in the comments and practice some of what you've learned here.

You can also take our quiz at www.engvid.com There, you can practice a

lot of the different vocabulary. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel; I

have new material coming out all the time. So, come check it out. I have

different videos on many different topics. Just don't forget to ring the

bell, because when you ring the bell, you will get an alert that a new video

has come out. You can also check my website at www.teacheremma.com.com.

There, you can find some other activities to do and other resources to

practice your English. So, thank you for watching; and until next time, take

care.