Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate in English

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…
• 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.
• 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

Though: This is going to be hard, though.
Right?: This is going to be easy, right?