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'He is good at English,'
'That's true.'
And:
'He is good at English,'
'That's right.'
According to Collins dictionary, right is defined as:
If something is right, it is correct and agrees with the facts.
true is defined as:
If something is true, it is based on facts rather than being invented or imagined, and is accurate and reliable.
They seem both refer to concrete fact, what's the difference between them? Any opinion is appreciated, thanks.
If there is a nuanced difference, true refers to the utterance (the statement is factual) and right refers to the person's understanding (your understanding is correct).
We tend not to say
His statement was right.
but
His statement was true.
and
He was right.
And even when we say "No, that's not right" after someone says something we know to be incorrect, when we say "That's not right" the meaning is "you have gotten it wrong". We're not saying that the statement is "false" because it could actually be more complicated than a simple binary true/false. We're referring to the speaker's understanding (or misunderstanding) of something.
In casual conversation, you can safely use these two phrases interchangeably. It's a very small nuance, but I generally use "that's true" when someone presents new information or ideas I hadn't previously considered, and "that's right" when someone reminds me of something I previously knew. I'm not sure this is an official rule of English, but it's something I notice in personal conversation.
Examples:
"If you call your friend now, he won't be awake yet due to the time zone difference," she said.
"That's true," I replied.
Or...
"What are we doing this weekend?" I asked my wife.
"Going to visit your family," she answered.
"Oh, that's right!" I said.
