Today we will learn how to agree with a person, how to say that something is the same for you.
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When you want to agree with someone’s opinion, you can use two types of phrases.
Simple way
First, you can say Me too. If you want to react to a positive statement, like ‘I like chocolate’ – ‘Me too’. ‘I am from Brazil’ – ‘Me too’. Very simple.
But if you react to a negative statement, you need to use ‘Me neither’ instead of ‘Me too’.
- I don’t like chocolate.
- Me neither.
Phrases ‘So do I’ or ‘Neither do I’
There is a more formal way to agree with different opinions and different statements. You can do it with mirroring ‘So/Neither’ structures.
To react to a positive statement, you use ‘So + Aux + Subject Pronoun‘.
Instead of direct order, when you say ‘Subject Pronoun + Aux’, you mirror the structure of the main sentence. For example, I say ‘I like chocolate’ and somebody reacts: ‘So do I’. It’s a reflection, it’s the opposite structure.
You agree with positive statements using ‘so’, and you agree with negative statements using ‘neither ‘, for example, if somebody says ‘I don’t like chocolate’, you will say ‘Neither do I’. Again, the mirroring structure, but you use ‘neither ‘ instead of ‘so’.
More Examples
I am a student. – So am I.
I don’t have a job. – Neither do I.
So, note the change of an auxiliary depending on the sentence verb tense. You repeat the verb tense auxiliary which was used in the sentence.
If the sentence was I am, you react with ‘am I‘.
If I use I like, you react with auxiliary for the simple tense ‘do I‘.
You will react to ‘I have finished my homework’ by saying ‘So have I‘.
For the future tenses as in ‘I will take a holiday next month’, the reaction will be ‘So will I‘.
And the same principle works for negatives. ‘I haven’t done my homework’ – The reaction is ‘Neither have I’.
For example, ‘I wasn’t at the theatre last month’. – ‘Neither was I.’
Quick Summary
Please remember the main principle that your answers can be different depending on if you react to the positive sentence or if you react to the negative sentence.
So, to agree with the positive sentence, you can say Me too or So + aux + subject pronoun (So do I, for example).
And to agree with the negative sentence, you will say Me neither or again the mirroring construction with Neither + aux + subject pronoun. For example, Neither do I.
