Agreeing and Disagreeing- Language Review

Agreeing and disagreeing review

Listen to your teacher reading out sentences from below and, without looking at the worksheet, hold up an “Agreeing” or a “Disagreeing” card depending on what you think about the meaning of the sentence.

Do the same, but keeping both cards down if the meaning isn’t clear.

Each section below is either language of agreeing, disagreeing or not giving any opinion. Read the sentences and decide which one each section is:

Are you having me on?

Over my dead body!

Ridiculous!

There is no way on earth…

That sounds like sheer lunacy

Are you out of your mind?

You’re having a laugh.

Out of the question.

Yeah, right.

You’ve got to be kidding.

Are you pulling my leg?

That’s complete nonsense.

I’ve never heard such utter rubbish.

You must be joking.

That is so not true.

Absolutely not.

 

Okay, you’ve twisted my arm.

You’re a tough negotiator…

If that’s the case, I guess…

If you put it that way, I suppose…

I’ll have to take your word on that.

I agree to some extent.

I suppose so.

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Against my better judgment, I’m going to trust you on this.

Alright, I’ll go along with that.

I might be coming round to your point of view.

I still have my doubts, but okay.

With reservations, I’m going to accept that.

Perhaps.

 

I second that.

Okay, you’ve convinced me.

I think so too.

That’s true.
I’d go along with that up to a point, but…

I’m going to need some persuading.

I’m not following your logic there.

I agree up to a point, but…

You could say that, but…

Have you also thought about…?

I think you might be forgetting…

I can see how you might think that, but…

Do you really think that’s such a good idea?

I wouldn’t quite put it that way myself.

We don’t seem to be in complete agreement here.

 

You have my full support.

I’ll back you up on that one.

That’s just what I was going to say.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

I couldn’t agree with you more.

That’s just the point I was trying to make.

Exactly.

Absolutely.

Precisely.

That’s just what I think.

I am in complete agreement.

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

Under no circumstances (will I)…

That is simply not true.

I can’t see any possible reason why…

I find that very difficult to accept.

I totally disagree.

There is no way I can accept that.

That is totally out of the question.

 

I’ll leave this in the hands of the experts.

I’m going to sit on the fence on this one.

I really couldn’t say one way or the other.

I’m willing to leave the decision entirely up to you.

As I don’t really have all the information, I’ll leave this one up to you.

I have no view on this at all.

 

That doesn’t tally with the information I have.

I can’t go along with that.

I thought we’d already decided…

But (last week) didn’t you say…?

I wouldn’t say that myself.

That’s not right.

 

Grade the sections above by how strong they are: very strong agreement, strong agreement, agreement, tentative agreement, weak or polite disagreement, disagreement, strong disagreement, very strong or rude disagreement

Which would you personally use in business meetings? Which would you use at other times in your life, e.g. with foreign friends?

Using the Agreeing/ Disagreeing cards again, test each other in pairs.

Choose one of the categories above, e.g. “strong agreement”. Try to give an opinion that gets that reaction from your partner. Do they give the reaction that you expect?

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Cards to hold up

Agreeing	Disagreeing
Agreeing	Disagreeing
Agreeing	Disagreeing
Agreeing	Disagreeing
Agreeing	Disagreeing