Softening opinions and making generalisations

Speaking part:

Think of reasons why you tend to agree or disagree with these sentences.

1. Men watch too much sport.
2. Men are better at sport than women.
3. All teenagers are lazy.cfg,n._,
4. Fast food is bad for you.
5. Pets cost a lot of money.
6. Motorbikes are dangerous.
7. There's never anything good on TV.

Softening opinions and making generalisations

Sometimes English speakers soften the way they express their opinions so that they don't sound rude or offensive.

We often use these phrases in bold to soften our opinions:

Some of them can be quite rude at times.

They tend to get rather loud.

That's not very normal behaviour.

Generally speaking, most people who go to matches are just loyal fans.

You get a few who can be a bit too enthusiastic.

On the whole, most fans just want to see a good game.

• After tend to we use the infinitive: He tends to be a bit aggressive.
• Rather, quite, not very and a bit  usually come before an adjective: They can get quite/rather/a bit noisy at times.
• We often use generally speaking and on the whole at the beginning of a sentence:

Generally speaking/On the whole, most football fans aren't violent at all.

o       We often use 'not very + positive adjective' to criticise someone or something politely:

They are not very intelligent. (= They are stupid.)

He wasn't very polite. (= He was rude.)

Use the words/phrases in brackets to soften these opinions about children.

1. Children don't do very much sport.

(Generally speaking, most)

Generally speaking, most children don't do very much sport.

2.  They're spoiled.

(tend to, a bit)

3. They're rude to their teachers.

     (can, quite, at times)

4. They're very unhealthy.

     (Some of them, not very)

5. They watch a lot of TV.

     (On the whole, tend to, quite)

6. They're impatient.

     (Generally speaking, not very)

7. They're selfish.

     ( Some of them, can, rather) 


Worksheets for exercising:

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