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Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate in English

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Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate! The following lesson introduces the list of useful phrases for discussing and debating in English with ESL image.

Learn more about how to express your opinion in English. 

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…
  • An argument for/ in favour of/ against if…
  • While admitting that…one should not fornet that…
  • Some people think that…,others say that…

expressions for debate

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.

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

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…

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

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?

expressions for debate

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.

“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.

Phrases for Discussing and Debating | Image

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate

Useful Phrases for Discussion and Debate in English.

Reina

Tuesday 15th of March 2022

Congratulation.

Audrey

Wednesday 9th of March 2022

find phases useful

Edgard Motobe

Saturday 28th of August 2021

I really want be a member how can join it

zack

Saturday 10th of July 2021

very Good

Eustachius

Monday 31st of May 2021

well,at the end of the day we will speak english fluently or to improve