Lesson 8: IELTS Speaking Part 3 - Giving & Justifying Opinions

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.

You will also need to justify your opinion or explain why you have that opinion.
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:
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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.

And after expressing your opinions, here are some ways that you can justify them:

 

Justifying Opinions

Across one sentence
Generally, the trains are a lot more reliable than the buses in my country...	+ Subject Verb: ...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... + Noun Phrase: ...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...
Across two sentences
Generally, the trains are a lot more reliable than the buses in my country.	+ Subject Verb: The reason for this is that the government... This is because the government has... This is due to the fact that the government has... + Noun Phrase: 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...