Debate, Opinions

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Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate
1. Introducing a point
 First of all I’d like to point out…

 The main problem is…
 The question of…
 Speaking of…
 What we have to decide is…
2. Enumeration of points
 First of all, I’d like to say…

 In addition to that…
 Moreover,…
 Furthermore,…
 Another example of this is..
 First, second, third…
 Finally,…
3. Expressing a personal opinion
 It seems to me that…
 I have the feeling that…
 I feel that…
 I’m absolutely convinced that…
 You can take it from me that…
 I think/don’t think that…
 In my opinion,…
 Well, if you ask me…
 As I see it…
 The way I see it, …
 Personally, I believe/suppose/feel (that)…
 I’m convinced that…
 Expressing pros and cons
 There are two sides to the question.
 On the one hand…,on the other hand…
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 An argument for/ in favour of/ against if…

 While admitting that…one should not fornet that…
 Some people think that…,others say that…
4. Expressing pros and cons
 There are two sides to the question.

 On the one hand…,on the other hand…
 An argument for/ in favour of/ against if…
 While admitting that…one should not fornet that…
 Some people think that…,others say that…
5. Expressing doubt
 I’m not sure if…

 I’m not convinced that…
 I wonder if you realize that…
 I doubt that.
6. Expressing disagreement
 I don’t agree with you about…

 I can’t accept your view that…
 I’m of a different opinion…
7. Expressing support
 You’re quite right.

 That’s a very important point.
 You’ve got a good point there.
 I couldn’t agree with you more.
 You look the words right out of my mouth.
 Giving reason
 The reason for this is (that)…
 I base my argument on…
 I tell you all this because…
8. Keeping to the point
 It would be more to the point if…

 Come to the point.
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 That’s not the problem.

 What we are discussing is…
 …has nothing to do with my argument.
 That’s not relevant.
 Drawing conclusion and summing up
 The obvious conclusion is…
 Last but not least…
 The only alternative (left) is…
 The only possible solution/conclusion is…
 Summing up, I’d like to say that…
 In conclusion we can say that…
 To cut a long story short,…
 Just to give you the main points again,…
9. Filers in conversation (used only in speaking)
At the beginning of a sentence
 Um…
 Ok/ All right, …
 Well/ Well, anyway…
 So/ So then,…
 By the way,…
 At any rate…Anyhow…
 You know,…
 What I mean is…
 So…where was I saying? /where was I?
In the middle of a sentence (usually)
 I mean: This is, I mean, going to be challenging.

 I guess: Well, I guess the problem is that I’m tired.
 Kind of: This kind of makes sense
 Adverbs such as “absolutely”, “actually”, “really”, “sure”, “seriously”: I mean,
seriously, do you believe that?
At the end of a sentence
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 Though: This is going to be hard, though.

Right?: This is going to be easy, right?
Expressions for Debate and Group Discussion
“I’m listening to the other side.”
– I see your point, but I think…
– Yes, I understand, but my opinion is that…
– That’s all very interesting, but the problem is that…
– I’m afraid I can’t quite agree with your point.
– I think I’ve got your point, now let me respond to it.
– We can see what you’re saying. Here’s my reply…
“I need to say something now.”

– I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’ve misunderstood our point.
– Excuse me, but that’s not quite correct.
– Sorry, I just have to disagree with your point.
– Let me just respond to that, please.
– Forgive me for interrupting, but I must respond to that.
– Hold on a moment, that’s not correct.
– If you would allow me to add a comment here…
– If you don’t mind, I’d like to take issue with what you just said.
“You haven’t replied yet.”

– The other side will have to explain why…. otherwise we win that point.
– We said that… but the other side has not replied to our point.
– I’d like to focus on two points that the other side has failed to address.
– There are two points that we have succeeded in establishing…
– I want to call your attention to an important point that our opponents have not addressed
yet.
– I’d like to point out that there are two issues our opponents have failed to dispute,
namely…
– I must stress again that our point has not been refuted by the other side.
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“Well, I think that…”

– The first point I would like to raise is this…
– Our position is the following…
– Here’s the main point I want to raise…
– I’d like to deal with two points here. The first is…
– Our opponents have still not addressed the question we raised a moment ago…
– The other side has failed to answer our point about…
– Notice that the affirmative side has not addressed our main point.
– Let me just restate my position.
– Just to be clear, here is what I mean…
“So finally, we…”

– To sum up, here are the main points our opponents have not addressed…
– We pointed out that…
– Our opponents have claimed that…
– To recap the main points…
– Let’s sum up where we stand in this debate.
– Let me summarize our position in this debate.
– In summary, we want to point out that…
– Let’s see which arguments are still standing.
– Let’s take stock of where we are in this debate.

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1

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

 First of all I’d like to point out…

 First of all, I’d like to say…

 An argument for/ in favour of/ against if…

 There are two sides to the question.

 I’m not sure if…

 I don’t agree with you about…

 You’re quite right.

 It would be more to the point if…

 That’s not the problem.

9. Filers in conversation (used only in speaking)

At the beginning of a sentence

 I mean: This is, I mean, going to be challenging.

 Though: This is going to be hard, though.

– Yes, I understand, but my opinion is that…

– That’s all very interesting, but the problem is that…

– I’m afraid I can’t quite agree with your point.

– I think I’ve got your point, now let me respond to it.

– We can see what you’re saying. Here’s my reply…

“I need to say something now.”

– Excuse me, but that’s not quite correct.

– Sorry, I just have to disagree with your point.

– Let me just respond to that, please.

– Forgive me for interrupting, but I must respond to that.

– Hold on a moment, that’s not correct.

– If you would allow me to add a comment here…

“You haven’t replied yet.”

– There are two points that we have succeeded in establishing…

“Well, I think that…”

– Our position is the following…

– Here’s the main point I want to raise…

– The other side has failed to answer our point about…

– Let me just restate my position.

– Just to be clear, here is what I mean…

“So finally, we…”

– Our opponents have claimed that…

– To recap the main points…

– Let’s sum up where we stand in this debate.

– Let me summarize our position in this debate.

– In summary, we want to point out that…

– Let’s see which arguments are still standing.

– Let’s take stock of where we are in this debate.

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