EXPRESSIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION

Giving your opinion about a topic

1. ______________________________ Agreeing
2. ______________________________
Expressing a strong opinion
Expressing complete agreement
  In my opinion, … 
 In my view, …    Exactly! 

 In my reckoning, …    Precisely! 

 I strongly believe in …    Totally! 
 I definitely think that …    Absolutely! 

 Well, if you ask me, …    That’s right! 

 Well, I think …    Correct! 

 I believe    You’re right! 

 I strongly believe   You’re so right! 

 I have a reason to believe    That’s so true! 

 I’m sure that…    I couldn’t agree with you more! 

 I’m pretty sure that…    I’m with you on that 
  That’s just what I was thinking! 
Expressing a strong value ( It’s / They’re + value   That’s exactly what I think. 
adjective)   That’s a good point. 
  That’s just how I see it. 
 It’s a nonsense to …    My feelings exactly. 

 ... It’s a scandal, because …    I’ll say! 

 It’s perfect for …   You can say that again! 

  It’s wrong… Likewise, … 
 They’re ideal …  Agreeing in part

Expressing certainty   Yes, perhaps, however ... 

  Well, yes, but ... 
  According to government statistics, …    Yes, in a way, however ... 
 Actually, …   Hmm, possibly, but ... 

  In fact, …    Yes, I agree up to a point, however ... 
  Clearly, …    Well, you have a point there, but ... 
 Obviously, …   There's something there, I suppose,

 People have always …  however... 

 People just won’t continue to …    I guess you could be right, but ... 
  Without doubt, …    Yes, I suppose so, however ... 
 That's worth thinking about, but ... 
  There’s no doubt that …. 
  Undoubtedly 
Expressing conditional agreement
 Surely, … 

  I’d agree with you if … 

 I’d certainly agree if you’re thinking of … 
Adding an argument
Disagreeing
3. ______________________________
  Also, .... 
  Again, that depends on …  Expressing complete disagreement
  In addition, … 
  What’s more, …   I don’t think so! 
 I might add that…  
   I disagree 
  Perhaps I should also mention…   I disagree entirely. 
 Not to mention the fact that …  
  I’m afraid I can’t agree. 
  Plus the fact that…   I’m afraid you’re wrong 
 Not only that, but…  
  On the contrary! 
  Definitely not! 
Dismissing an argument as irrelevant or  …, but what I’m afraid of is… 
improbable.   …, but what bothers me is… 
  …, but what I don’t like is… 
  That isn’t the point.   …, but what I’m concerned with is… 
  That’s highly debatable. 
 That’s highly unlikely.  Countering using "after all" "at least" "even
so" both for concession and antithesis
Disagreeing diplomatically (through doubt)  … After all, … 
  At least there’s … 
  I wonder whether that’s the case.    But at least… 
  Hmmm, I’m not sure about that..   Well, even so, … 
  I’m not sure (that) it works like that. 
 I’m not so sure about that.  Logical argument
 5. ______________________________
  I’m not so certain 
  Well, I’m not sure whether you can really …  Questions or conclusions based on conditions
  Well, I don’t know…  with "if"
  Well, it depends… 
 I’m inclined to disagree with that…   If …, why don’t they just …? 

Disagreeing in part ( appeal to logic )   What if …? 
  And what happens if …? 
  Not necessarily   What would happen then if …? 
  That doesn’t necessarily follow.  
  If that is so…, (then) …. 
  That’s not necessarily true   That would be true if… 
 That isn’t strictly true.  
  You would be right if… 
Countering
4. ______________________________   That would make sense if… 
 It’d be O.K. if … 
Countering directly (through antithesis)
Questions based on conditions with sentence
  But  adverbials " then" and "so"
  But who can say that …? 
 But why …? 
  But if you… Then how do you go about …? 
  But if …   Then can you tell me what’s wrong with …? 
 But surely, … 

Countering politely (through agreement followed Expressing cause and effect

6. ______________________________
by antithesis)
Cause
  Yes, but remember that    The reason why… is … 
 Yes, but it isn’t that …   The reason why … is that … 
  Due to …,… 
Countering politely (through partial agreement   Because… 
followed by antithesis)   Because of… 
  Because…, 
  That may be so, but …    Since…, 
  That may be true, but …   …is why… 
  That may be so, … 
 That might have been the case once, but …  Result

 Well, maybe they do, but …    For this reason,… 
  You may be right about …, but ..   For this reason alone, … 
  Maybe…But the problem is…    Owing to this, … 
  That’s a good idea, but…    This is why … 
  That’s a good point, but…    That’s why… 
  I’d love to, but…    This is the reason why … 
  That would be great, except that…    Therefore 
 That may be so, but…    So 
  Possibly, but…   As a result 
  …, but what I’m concerned with is…    Consequently,… 
 Clarification
7. ______________________________   Sorry, what did you say? 
  Sorry, what was that? 
Asking someone to repeat  What’s that again? 
 Pardon me? 
When you can’t follow the logical progression in
  Pardon? 
someone’s argument
  Excuse me? 
  Sorry?   You lost me there. 
  I’m sorry?  
  I’m lost. 
  I beg you pardon?   I’m not following. 
  Could you say that again?  
  I don’t follow. 
  Would you repeat that please?   I didn’t get that. 
  Would you mind repeating that please? 
Giving clarification / Reiteration through   In what way? 
  How do you mean? 
reference to subject
  Why do you say that?. 
  Why is that 
  I’m talking about … 
 Why not? 

  I’m saying that … 
 Can you explain why …? 

  What I’m saying is that … 
 Why do you think that? 
 The whole point of this is that… 

  That’s what this discussion’s about.  Giving examples
8. ______________________________
 I’m talking about … 

Giving clarification after misunderstanding   For example, … 

  For instance, … 
 Take for example … 
  What I mean is…  
 What I meant is…    A classic example of this is… 
  A classic example of this would be… 
  What I’m saying is… 
  To illustrate my point… 
  What I’m trying to say is… 
 Don’t get me wrong…   Let me give you an example… 
  Don’t misunderstand me… 
Expressing solutions and alternatives
9. ______________________________
  Let me put it another way, … 
  That’s not what I said… 
  That’s not what I meant    The solution is to … Then you will ... 
  What I said was…    The best way to … is … 
  What I really said/mean/meant…    To …, you really have to …. 
 You must have misunderstood me…   There are many choices. You can … You
 Let’s get it straight…  can ….... 
  Alternatively, … 
Asking for clarification through short Yes/No   Instead, … 
 The alternative is… 
Questions inviting illustration or example.
Interrupting
10._________________________________
  And are they right? 
  Does that make it ok?  Polite interruption
  Can you be a bit more specific? 
  Are you saying that …?.    Sorry, but… 
 Are we talking about …?    May I say something? 
  May I add something? 
Clarification through "What" or "How"  May I ask a question? 

Questions inviting illustration or  I’d like to say something about that 
example.
Holding the floor
  What’s wrong with that? 
  What’s wrong with …?.    Hold on 
  What do you mean?    Hold on a second 
  What do you mean by …?    Yes, I was about to mention that. 
  What are you trying to say?    Well, I was about to come to th.t 
  Sorry, I haven’t finished yet  Conclusion
14._________________________________
  … I haven’t made my point yet   To make a long story short,… 
 … I’m about to make my point  
   So in short,… 
  … I’m almost done   So you see… 
 … If you could just give me a second  
   So, finally,… 
  ... If you let me finish, I’ll tell you!   So,… 
 Please let me finish  
   All in all,… 
  Could you wait until I’m done?   In the end,… 
 I’m talking here!  
   To conclude,… 
  Would you let me finish?   To sum up,… 
 Would you hold on a second?  
  To summarize,… 
  Summing up, … 
When two people start speaking at the same
  To put it simply,… 
time
  To put it in a few words, … 

  Please  Providing feedbacks

15._________________________________
  Go ahead 
  You first 
Keeping the conversation
  Please, I can wait 
  It wasn’t all that relevant 
  Right 
  It wasn’t important 
 Never mind.    Okay 
  Yeah 
Exceptions  I know what you mean. 

11._________________________________   I know. 
 I see... 
 There are exceptions, of course… 
   Of course 
  One should mention, or course…    That’s normal 
  An exception to that is…   True 
  This does include… 
  One exception is…  Keeping the conversation by asking the speaker
 Another exception is…  to provide more information.
Getting back to the point
12._________________________________   Yes? 
  And? 
 Well? 
  Anyway   So? 
 In any case,… 
  Then... 
  To return to… 
  And then? 
  Returning back to… 
  Such as...? 
  To get back to the point… 
  Let’s get back to the point…  Giving explanations
16._________________________________
  Where was I?   Let’s see... 
 What were we talking about?  
  Ok! 
Generalizations
13._________________________________   Let me put it this way 
  Let me put it another way. 
  Let me see if I can explain it for you 
  Generally,… 
  Here’s the thing. 
 In general, …    Here is what I mean. 
  As a rule,… 
  This is what I want to say. 
  Usually, 
  I’ll try to explain. 
  Typically, 
  Let me try again. 
  By and large,   Here’s what you need to know/remember 
  On average, 
  Generally speaking, 