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The plaintiff agreed ______ settle outside of court.
a) on
b) to
c) with
The correct answer is b) to.
Be careful with these tricky expressions. Agree on, agree to, and agree with cannot be used interchangeably.
“Agreed on” means that after consultation, two or more people have come to a decision. Notice that the preposition “on” cannot be immediately followed by a verb, and that the opposite expression is “disagreed on”.
The children agreed on what to buy their parents for Christmas.
The teachers disagreed on their contract for the next school year.
“Agreed to” is used to say that someone has committed to a course of action. “Agreed to” is typically followed by the base form of a verb. Note that we cannot say “disagreed to,” but we can say “did not agree to” followed by a verb.
He agreed to meet her at the coffee shop.
He did not agree to meet her at the coffee shop.
(x) He disagreed to meet her at the coffee shop.
Generally, you should avoid using a noun following “(did not) agree to”. Nevertheless, in casual speech, you may occasionally encounter that structure with a noun. Native speakers would interpret casual sentences like these by considering in context what the activity related to the noun would be. For instance:
He agreed to a meeting. (May be interpreted as “He agreed to attend a meeting.”)
He did not agree to a pizza. (May be interpreted as “He did not agree to order/eat a pizza.”)
Note that we cannot use “disagreed to” + noun, even in casual speech.
(x) He disagreed to a meeting. (Cannot be interpreted.)
“Agree with” indicates that two people have the same opinion, or that a person approves of something. “Agree with” is typically followed by a person or idea. The opposite sense can be expressed using “disagree with”.
I agree with Bob that we should wait a month to buy a new car.
Some of the cabinet members disagreed with the president’s approach.
We hope you found this edition of Compecs Connection most agreeable.