Expressing Opinions for IELTS Speaking
Expressing opinions or giving your thoughts is an important part of the IELTS speaking test, especially in part 3 when you have a 2-way discussion with the examiner.By justifying your opinion you will be extending your response and making sure you are having a proper discussion with the examiner which you need to do in part 3.
In this lesson we'll look at some ways to express your opinions and justify them.
To do this we usually use adverbial phrases at the start of the sentence.
Here are some ways of expressing opinions or saying what you think about a topic:
Expressing Opinions
Expression | Meaning | Example |
Clearly Obviously |
Easy to understand or see | Clearly, the economy is not going to improve this year. |
Personally | Showing that it is your opinion | Personally, I don't think the legal drinking age should be reduced. Others may disagree. |
Generally | Usually, or in most situations | Generally, the trains are a lot more reliable than the buses in my country. |
Surprisingly | Unexpectedly or in a way that is unusual | Surprisingly, the government prohibited smoking in all public places last year. I never thought this would happen. |
Inevitably | In a way that cannot be avoided | I didn't study much. Inevitably, I didn't get the score I needed. |
Predictably | As expected | Predictably, problems are now occurring in the city because of overpopulation. |
Frankly | To be honest and direct | Frankly, I wish I'd waited before taking the IELTS test as I'm not ready! |
Sadly Regrettably Unfortunately |
Unhappy, sad or sorry about something | Regrettably, my family could never return to their country because of the civil war. |
Justifying Opinions
Generally, the trains are a lot more reliable than the buses in my country... | ...as the government has invested a lot of money into the system. ...because the government has... ...since the government has... ...due to the fact that the government has... ...because of the government's investment of money into the system. ...due to the government's investment of... ...as a result of the government's investment of... ...as a consequence of the government's investment of... |
Generally, the trains are a lot more reliable than the buses in my country. | The reason for this is that the government... This is because the government has... This is due to the fact that the government has... This is due to the government's investment of... This is because of the government's investment of... This is as a result of the government's investment of... This is as a consequence of the government's investment of... |