Opinions- Mistakes
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Typical errors with opinions phrases review
Lesson Plan Content:
Opinions language correct the mistakes
In each section below there is one sentence that should be in a different section and one sentence that has a mistake with the language. Correct the wrong sentence and move the wrong sentence in each.
Asking for opinions
“Don’t you think that…?” “How do you feel about…?”
“How do you think about…?” “What do you think?”
“What’s your opinion on…?”
Giving strong opinions
“I really think that…” “Frankly,…
“I strongly believe that…” “I’m absolutely certain that…”
“I’m convinced that…” “I’m positive that…”
“In my honestly opinion,…” “It seems clear to me that…”
“This may be controversial, but…” “I would definitely say that…”
“To be perfectly frank,…” “To the best of my knowledge,…”
“Without a doubt,…”
Giving weak opinions
“As far as I know,…” “I would guess that…”
“I would imagine that…” “I’m not expert on this, but…”
“I’ve never really thought about this before, but…”
“If you ask me,…” “It might well be that…”
“Off the top of my head,…” “There is a part of me that says…”
“With a few reservations, I’d say that…”
Other opinions phrases
“If you want my opinion,…” “I’d say that…”
“As far as I concerned,…” “From my point of view,…”
“I believe…” “If I must come up with an opinion, I’d probably say that…”
“The way I see it,…”
Agreeing
“Absolutely” “Agree”
“Agreed” “Exactly”
“I am in complete agreement” “I can see how you might think that”
“I still have my doubts but…” “I suppose so”
“I wholeheartedly agree” “Okay, you’ve convinced me”
“Precisely” “That’s just what I think”
“That’s just what I was going to say” “You took the words right out of my mouth”
Disagreeing
“Absolutely no” “I couldn’t agree with you more”
“I find that very difficult to accept” “I think you might be forgetting…”
“You could say that, but…”
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Suggested answers
Asking for opinions
“Don’t you think that…?” – Usually used to disagree
“How do you think about…?” – Should be “How do you feel about…?” or “What do you think about…?”
Giving strong opinions
“In my honestly opinion,…” – Should be “In my honest opinion,…”
“To the best of my knowledge,…” – This is used to give weak opinions
Giving weak opinions
“I’m not expert on this, but…” – Should be “I’m no expert on this, but…” or (less commonly) “I’m not an expert on this, but…”
“If you ask me,…” – This is not necessarily weak, so should be Other Opinions Phrases below
Other opinions phrases
“As far as I concerned,…” – Should be “As far as I am concerned,…”
“If I must come up with an opinion, I’d probably say that…” – This is a weak opinion
Agreeing
“Agree” – Should be “I agree” or possibly “Agreed”
“I can see how you might think that” – This is used to disagree
Disagreeing
“Absolutely no” – Should be “Absolutely not”
“I couldn’t agree with you more” – This is used to agree (because it means I agree so much that more is impossible)
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Brainstorming stage
Without looking above, write as many suitable phrases as you can in each section below. Many other phrases not above are also possible.
Asking for opinions
Giving strong opinions
Giving weak opinions
Other opinions phrases
Agreeing
Disagreeing
Compare with the corrected worksheet above. Many other phrases are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.
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