Useful phrases for expressing your opinion at work

Many students come to us at Intrepid English because they use English at work and want to improve their business English skills with functional vocabulary and phrases.

Do you want to feel more confident using English at work? In today’s blog post, we will take a look at some useful phrases for expressing your opinion at work.

I think…

The most common verb we use to express our opinion in English is ‘think’. We use the following structure:

I + think + (that) + opinion.

Here are some affirmative examples:

“I think that’s a great idea!”

“I think that they are going to love the new campaign.”

“I think we will need extra time to complete this.”

Note: We can make this negative by adding ‘don’t’. The second part of the sentence is always affirmative.

For example:

“I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

“I don’t think they are going to love the new campaign.”

“I don’t think we will need any extra time.”

Expressing Your Opinion

Let’s take a look at some different ways to give our opinion. Some other useful phrases you can use are:

I believe (that)…

In my opinion…

The way I see it…

From my perspective…

From my point of view…

I would/wouldn’t say (that)…

It seems… (this expression uses the passive form and distances the speaker from the opinion. Take care not to overuse this. It is similar to saying “it sounds like…”)

Here are some examples:

“I believe that the campaign could reflect our brand values more.”

“In my opinion, the brand colours fit well with the theme.”

“The way I see it, the more work we do now, the more prepared we will be for when things really kick off.”

“It seems the client was not too happy with the new ideas presented this morning.”

“I wouldn’t say that there is a huge demand for this type of product.”

Expressing uncertainty

In some cases, you may not have a very strong opinion on a topic, or perhaps you don’t know enough about the topic to give a view. The following are some expressions that can be used to express uncertainty or impartiality.

I’m on the fence about that.

I’m not sure about that.

I’m impartial.

I’m somewhere in the middle on that.

I’m afraid I don’t know much about that.

I haven’t really thought about that before, but…

Using adverbs and adjectives

To emphasise a strong and confident opinion on a topic, use an adverb or adjective.

Some common adverbs or adjectives for giving our opinion are:

Strongly/Firmly

Definitely

Certainly

Personally

Honestly

Honest

Examples:

“I strongly/firmly believe that she is a great candidate for the role.”

“I would definitely say that the product needs further development before being released on the market.”

“It certainly seems that there is a huge global market for this service.”

“In my honest opinion, the team isn’t ready yet.”

“Personally, I think it’s our best ad campaign to date.”

Don’t forget to download your free handy cheat sheet, complete with a practice activity. You can also study this topic in more detail in the Small Talk course, which is one of our free taster courses, and part of our Business English Skill Set courses.

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This content was written and recorded by Intrepid English Teacher Kate B.

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You can find out more about Kate B on her Intrepid English Teacher Profile Page.

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Hello, and welcome to the Intrepid English podcast. My name is Lorraine, and today, I have a conversation for you. My friend Alyssa is a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant in London. And when I told Alyssa that we were creating a diversity and inclusion course, in the intrepid English Academy, we had a lovely conversation about why diversity and inclusion are so important. I asked her to join me on this podcast as an expert in this field, to break down these big topics so that our English learners and the listeners of this podcast can understand a little bit about what diversity and inclusion are, why they’re so important, and give you a little bit of language that you can use to increase your awareness and broaden your horizons in these essential areas.