"Agree" vs. "concur"

Agree and concur mean the same thing in this context, but the latter is more formal. Both words may be used with or without with.

I agree.

I agree with you.

I concur.

I concur with you.


I usually see:

I agree with you. (most common)

I agree. (also common)

I concur. (not so common)

To say I concur with you. is awkward, but I'm not sure if it's technically wrong.


As @Jasper says, the words mean pretty much the same thing. I suppose concur could be a little bit more "formal" than agree, in that it's not so well-known. But that's really just because it's "dated". From Google Ngrams:

"Concur" is as popular as "agree" in 1800, but slopes downwards drastically, while "agree" stays about the same. "Concur with" is less popular.

In answer to OP's specific question, use agree unless you want to sound stilted / pretentious. Whilst there's no grammatical reason why with you is any more "correct" after either verb, in terms of usage I suspect it may be omitted more often after concur. I suggest that purely because the brevity of I [verb] can carry "imperious" overtones, better suited to the more formal concur.


Reflecting on this, I think that concur describes a passive acquiescence, agree an active one. Imagine a meeting. The Chair says Are we in favour of what is proposed? This is followed by heads nodding wisely and a general murmuring suggesting that those present approve, that is, they 'go along with it', they concur.

Now imagine a different meeting. The Chair again says Are we in favour of what is proposed? One of those round the table says This is a bold initiative and we should give it our support.’ Another says I did have some reservations, but I can now see the advantages and you can rely on my vote. And so on. Individually and collectively, they agree.


Concurring, I think, has the connotation that you are coming to agreement with a group consensus that is in the process of forming. In other words, the group is coalescing around a particular position, and you are helping that coalescence. Agreement is usually more directed towards a statement that someone else just made.