View

View as a noun

View as a noun means a belief, opinion or idea about something:

• I don’t have strong views on religion. (or I don’t have strong views about religion.)
• What are your views on climate change? (or What are your views about climate change?)

We can introduce our ideas with in my view or from my point of view:

• In my view*, everyone should stay in school until they are 18.*
• Not: In my point of view …
• I spent two months working in England. From my point of view, that was the easiest way to learn English.
• Not: In my point of view … or On my point of view …

warning

We use from my point of view to express how we see something or how it affects us personally. When we are expressing our beliefs or opinions, we use in my opinion or in my view.

Compare

From my point of view, driving is not a good option. I get very tired if I drive more than about two hours.	In my opinion/In my view, in 100 years’ time people will still be wearing jeans.
How the speaker is personally affected by something.	A general opinion about the clothes people will be wearing in 100 years’ time.

See also

• Think

We can use point of view as a noun phrase in the singular or plural:

• If you ask people how the economic crisis affects them, you will get many different points of view.

We can also use view to refer to what we can see from a particular place:

• The view from my window is amazing.
• We booked a room with a view, but our room was overlooking the car park.

View as a verb

We also use view as a verb to mean ‘hold an opinion’:

• How does your company view unions? (What is the company’s opinion of unions?)
• Changes are often viewed with suspicion.

In formal contexts, we can use view to mean ‘watch or look at something’:

• The DVD can also be viewed on your PC.

View can also mean ‘look at a house when you are thinking of buying or renting it’:

• We’re still looking for a house. We’ve viewed ten places already and we didn’t like any of them.