I don't completely agree with you.

Question

Hello.If you say "I don't completely agree with you.", what does it mean?"I don't agree with you at all." or "I don't agree with you in some ways."?Thank you.

Yoong Liat · Accepted Answer

KentaHello.

If you say "I don't completely agree with you.", what does it mean?

"I don't agree with you at all." or "I don't agree with you in some ways."?

Thank you.

To me, it means the latter.

Yankee · Answer

Technically speaking, it means the latter.  In reality, it might be used as a "tactful" way of saying the former. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

Kooyeen · Answer

Hi,
not completely = to some extent, but not completely.

When you find words that are related to "completeness", like completely, quite, everything, all, very, really, etc., you should be careful and pay attention to where the negation is, because the meaning usually changes.
A little example. These two are different:

I really don't like it.<-- really not = not at all => I probably hate it
I don't really like it.<-- not really = not much = I like it to some extent => I don't love it, but I can't say I hate it.

YankeeTechnically speaking, it means the latter. In reality, it might be used as a "tactful" way of saying the former.

LOL, here Amy was almost trying to confuse you, but she's right. It's just that sometimes people don't say things directly, but try to put it in a less direct way to avoid sounding too rude. Well, I do that all the time and I think most people do it as well. That's why when you make a sandwich someone might tell you "Well, it's just that I don't really like the sauce, but your sandwich is good!", when they might have wanted to say "****, what did you put in there? I'm gonna throw up!"

But that's another matter.

Goodman · Answer

YankeeTechnically speaking, it means the latter. In reality, it might be used as a "tactful" way of saying the former.

I agree with Amy. "Competely" -means 100%. It could possbily mean that one only agrees with something 5% and tactfully says "I don't completely agree with you" when he is actually 95% in disgreeing with what you said.

Akavall · Answer

It means the later. "I completely don't agree with you" would mean the former.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the speaker actually means what he or she says. In some situations, one can even say, "I agree with you", while they don't agree at all.

CalifJim · Answer

"I don't completely agree with you." = "I don't agree with you in some ways." and "I disagree with you in some ways."
"I completely disagree with you." = "I don't agree with you at all."

CJ

Kenta · Answer

Thank you all. You helped me a lot!

Anonymous · Answer

I agree on some things you say, but I don't necessarily agree with all of them.
plain English.
Havig said that, I may agree on some things with you...depending on what they mea?

I don't completely agree with you.

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