Fact and Opinion

What is Fact and Opinion?

Within English, which covers grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, poetry, drama and the skills for clear communication, this topic explains Fact and Opinion. English topics help you read closely and write with purpose, so each one here explains a skill and shows how it works in a model text.

Check that you can explain Fact and Opinion in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Fact and Opinion helps you read texts more closely and write with more control, which earns marks in both reading and writing papers.

Fact and Opinion in detail

A fact is a statement that can be proved true or false by evidence, such as "Water boils at 100 °C at sea level". An opinion is a personal view or belief that cannot be proven, such as "Winter is the best season".

Opinions often include words like "I think", "best", "should" or "probably", though they may be disguised as facts, and some statements mix both. Writers may support opinions with facts to persuade. Telling them apart is a key critical reading skill that helps you evaluate news, adverts and social media and avoid being misled.

How the interactive helps you understand Fact and Opinion

Click a card to flip it and reveal the answer, then move on to the next one.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Fact and Opinion.

Real-life uses and examples

• Plan an essay paragraph by linking the technique to the reader’s response.
• Spot Fact and Opinion when you read a poem, story or speech, then explain the effect it creates.
• Use Fact and Opinion to make your own writing more precise and vivid.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Quoting a long passage instead of picking a short, precise phrase.
• Naming a technique without explaining its effect on the reader.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.