Hi tim here with another 9-5 English lesson in today's lesson, we're going to learn how to express support for an idea in english in business.

It's very important to be able to express your ideas confidently.

That doesn't just mean coming up with new ideas, it can also mean expressing what you think about other people's ideas.

In our last lesson we learned how to express doubt.

Today, we're going to look at the other side and talk about how to express support for an idea.

Now, sometimes you want to show moderate support or just a bit of support in this situation, you can use expressions like I guess or I suppose before stating your support and when you state your support, you might use expressions like I can see your point or that's a good way to look at it.

Let's try a bit of practice with these ways of expressing moderate support for an idea, listen to each example, then repeat it yourself.

Ready?

Let's get started.

I could go along with that.

Yeah, I guess I can see your point.

That's worth considering.

I suppose that's a good way to look at it.

Did you hear that expression, I could go along with that if you go along with something, you agree or support a plan or way of doing something and notice that saying I can or I could are mild expressions.

It's very different from saying, I will go along with that sometimes, however, you don't want to show moderate support instead, you want to show strong support.

Well you might add definitely after I can or I could to turn that expression into one showing strong support.

You might also use words or phrases to emphasize like I'm behind you 100%.

In that case behind you means I support you or you might say that's a really great idea, you can see how different that sounds then I guess that's a good idea, which doesn't sound strong at all.

Let's try some examples of showing strong support.

Remember to repeat the examples after you hear them.

I'm behind you 100%.

I can definitely back you up on that.

I must say that's a really great idea, no doubt about it.

So in our last lesson we looked at expressing doubt, but if you say no doubt about it, you're actually saying you strongly support something.

One other expression you heard for emphasis is I must say you can introduce any opinion with that expression just to emphasize how strongly you feel.

All right, we've practiced different ways of expressing support, but how does this sound?

In a conversation?

Let's listen to a short dialogue between Gillian and Dave.

Jillian is expressing her opinion about who should join a work team.

Dave is expressing support for her ideas.

I think we should bring jane onto the team.

I could go along with that and maybe Gregory too.

He's really smart, no doubt about it now, it's your turn to practice, We'll repeat the dialogue but this time we're going to beep out the second speaker's words.

You will have to say those parts yourself.

Remember to start by saying you could go along with that then show strong support for the next idea by saying no doubt about it.

I think we should bring jane onto the team and maybe Gregory too.

He's really smart.

Okay that's all for this lesson.

We've learned how to express mild or moderate support for an idea and how to say you strongly support something.

We'll be back soon with some more 9 to 5 english lessons this time with a focus on phrase Alvar verbs, phrase Alvar verbs can be tricky especially if you're just beginning to learn english but we'll have you speaking like a pro in no time until then.