Expressing agreement

In English language we can find different ways to express agreement. One of the most common, and easiest ones, is by simply answering “me too” (positive statement) or “me neither” (negative statement). For instance:

A: I love Italian food

B: Me too!

A: I don’t like the cold weather

B: Me neither

However, we would like to introduce another way to express agreement which requires the use of the following components: So/Neither + verb + personal pronoun. It is also very common in spoken language and the rules we need to follow are very similar to those we learned concerning question tags. First, always remember that SO is applied to positive statements and NEITHER to negative. For example:

A: You look great today!

B: So do you!

A: He is not very pleased with Sandra’s performance

B: Neither am I

Second, you need to use the same verb as in the main sentence. If it is an auxiliary verb (be, have) or a modal verb, you will use it again to express agreement. With any other verbs, you will use do. Examples:

A: I haven’t got a clue

B: Neither have I

A: I can speak Arabic

B: So can I

A: I like to have a cup of tea in the morning

B: So do I

Finally, remember that you have to use the same tense in your reply (present, past, conditional or future), like in the following examples:

A: Martha went to Paris last summer

B: So did I

A: Back in the 1990s, I was a music teacher

B: So was I

A: I wouldn’t like to tell her the truth

B: Neither would I

Summing up, you just need to bear in mind to use the appropriate adverb (so for positive statements, neither for negative) and choose the same verb (tense included) as in the main sentence.

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