C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Phrases

Expressing opinion Personalising the topic

 To my mind,  As far as I’m concerned…
 I’m of the mind that…  Speaking from personal experience I’d say that…
 The way I see it,  In my experience, …
 As I see it,  I often find that…
 From my point of view/ perspective,  In my case, …
 I look at it like this…  Speaking for me personally, …
 I’m a firm/big believer in…  From what I’ve seen, …
 Look, here’s what I think…  I can’t speak for anyone else, but in my case…
 If you ask me,…  This is a topic that is close to my heart because…
 I hold the view that…  This really resonates with me personally because…
Rephrasing Time Buyers
 What I mean is...  It’s funny you should ask that…
 I guess what I'm trying to say is...  That’s weird I was just talking about this the other day…
 In other words…  Hhmmmm that’s a tough one…
 To put it another way…  That’s an interesting question…
 How can I put this?  Now let me see…
Changing topic Adding additional points
 Moving on to…  It’s also worth bearing in mind that...
 Now when it comes to…  Another point worth highlighting is…
 … which leads me on to…  What’s more/On top of that
 Now let’s take a look at…  It must also be pointed out that…
 Let’s move on shall we?  Aside from that,
Agreeing Disagreeing
 Totally/Absolutely/Exactly  I see what you mean but…
 I think we’re on the same page here.  I take your point but…
 I’m with you on that one.  I beg to differ I’m afraid.
 I couldn’t agree more.  I’m afraid I have to disagree with you there.
 Hear, hear!  Yes but if we look at it from another angle…
 I’d go along with that.  That’s not exactly how I see it.
 I was just going to say that.  No, you’ve lost me there.
 You took the words right out of my mouth.  I’m afraid I just don’t buy it.
Convincing/Negotiating Making a decision
 Wouldn’t it be better to …?  Right, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
 I hear what you’re saying but…  I’m torn between ____ and ____
 Hear me out here …  At the end of the day, we’ve got to choose one…
 I’m sure we can come to a compromise.  My first instinct is to go for… what do you think?
 Ok, ok, you’ve talked me round. (you’ve convinced me)  The one that jumps out at me is…
Asking for opinion Impressive structures
 What’s your take on this?  Coming back to what (Javi) was saying about …. I’d also like
 Where do you stand on this topic? to point out that…
 What do you reckon? | wɒdəjə ˈrekən |  I think it’s important not to forget that…
 Would you go along with that? (after expressing opinion)  The vast majority of people tend to think that…
 What are your thoughts on this?  When all’s said and done…
Giving examples Wrap up/referring back
 A clear example of this is…  So as I was saying…
 The first example that springs to mind is…  In summary,
 For instance,  In a nutshell,
 The most obvious example is…  In summary,
 When I hear the word ____, I immediately think of ____