Phrases to Express Your Opinion in

English
Introducing your opinion in English with a phrase sets the tone of your opinion. It
guides the listener to understand the type of opinion you are sharing. It will clarify if the
opinion you are sharing is your own opinion, an opinion taken from someone else or
an opinion from a well-researched article.

Common Phrases
Common phrases don’t need to be too polite. We can speak of ourselves in the first
person and follow the introduction with our opinion. It’s enough to say ‘from my point
of view’ to let the other person know that it’s your personal opinion.

‘In my opinion…’

‘Personally, I feel that…’

‘I would say that…’

‘Speaking personally....’

‘Speaking from my perspective…’

‘I guess that…’

‘I bet that…’

‘I assume that…’

‘I gather that…’

‘My impression is that…’

‘I am sure that…’

‘I’m certain that....’

‘I have a feeling that…’

‘I would argue that…’

‘I would say that…’

Formal Phrases
We need to be more careful with formal phrases to express opinions in English. It’s
common to use a passive tense when expressing our opinions in a formal
situation. We should share our point of view as one way of interpreting information and
we must share it as diplomatically as possible. It’s important to be as objective as
possible in a formal situation. A personal opinion needs to be backed by evidence in
formal speaking or writing.

‘According to (reference the person)...’

‘It could be argued that…’

‘It could be believed that…’

‘It suggests that…’

‘It appears that…’

‘It seems that…’

‘One could say that…’

‘One could understand that…’

‘It would appear that…’

How To Express Personal Opinion

We can use the first person to express our personal opinions in informal spoken
English and written English. We can use a phrase to highlight our personal opinion
and remind the person we’re speaking to that it’s just our own opinion. Our opinion
could be wrong or the other person might not agree - but we’re expressing what we
believe.

In formal writing and speaking, it’s important not to overuse introductory opinion
phrases. It becomes redundant to use too many of these phrases because you are always
writing or speaking from your perspective - so use them sparingly. It’s best to use
formal phrases to express a personal opinion when you are personally interpreting
data. This makes it clear that it’s your interpretation of facts or other opinions.

How To Express General Opinion

In informal situations, it’s common to use the impersonal ‘you,’ ‘everyone’ or
‘people’ to express a general opinion.

For example:

‘You would think that…’

‘You would believe…’

‘People think that…’

‘Everyone understands that…’

In formal situations, it’s common to use the impersonal ‘one’ pronoun for general
opinions.

For example:

‘One believes that…’

‘One would think that…’

‘One could interpret it as…’

‘One’s opinion could be…’