SUPPLEMENT 2.

USEFUL PHRASES AND FORMULAS

Moderating a discussion

Welcoming
Less formal
 Welcome to …
 Thank you for coming all this way.
 It’s nice to be here.
Formal
 Good morning. I’m …, and it’s my pleasure to moderate our panel
discussion entitled …
 It’s my privilege to moderate …
 On behalf of …, I’m very glad to welcome you …
 It’s a pleasure to see you here.
 It’s my pleasure to welcome all of you to … I’m confident you will find it
informative and stimulating.

Objectives
 We are here today to …
 The main objective (purpose) of today’s discussion is …
 Today we aim to deal with …
 Today we’ll cover …

Introductions
 This is … He’s in charge of …
 I’m pleased to present …
 The name of our next speaker is familiar to all of us.
 We are fortunate to have a / the most highly respected (qualified) … with us
today.
 It’s my great pleasure to introduce … who will speak to us on a subject of
vital interest …
 No one is better qualified to speak to us on this subject than today’s featured
guest …
 Please join me in warmly welcoming one of the most influential thinkers in
our profession …
Ground rules
 … is allotted to the entire session.
 Each panelist is given … minutes.
 Mr. …, you have five minutes.
 I’m sorry, but your time is up.
  Our time is almost up.
 Thank you. We’ve run out of time.
 In the interest of time …
 Pardon me, but we are running seriously overtime. In consideration of our
audience, can we try to get back on schedule?
 I’d like to ask speakers to adhere to the schedule.
 We’ll have a question and answer (Q&A) session at the end.
 I’d like to ask you to save your questions until the end.
 Please withhold your comments and questions until the end.

Inviting questions
 Please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
 Please feel free to ask questions.
 Will you state your question, please?

Asking questions and showing interest

General:
 I’d be interested in knowing more about …
 Could you tell us something about …?

Detailed:
 What exactly do you mean by …?
 Could you be more specific …?

Supportive:
 So, you are saying …
 If I understand you correctly, you are offering …
 Am I right in thinking you plan to …?

Closing signal
Less formal:
 I think we can call it a day.
 I think that covers it.
 Let’s stop there.

More formal:
 That brings us to the end of …
 I think we’ve covered everything.
Progress made
  We’ve taken a major step forward.
 We’ve made excellent / good / some progress.
 We’ve taken a step in the right direction.

Summarizing
 Let’s go over the main points again.
 Can I just run over the main points?
 We’ve agreed the following …
 There’s still the / a question of … to be resolved.

Closing
 It remains for me to thank you for coming and …
 I’m sure we would all agree that we have had a successful meeting.
 All of us appreciate your kind attention and stimulating comments and
questions.
 I thank you for your participation in what I consider a highly successful …
 I want to thank the speakers once again, as well as the audience, for these
most challenging questions. I trust that, like me, you have found this
discussion stimulating, exciting, and useful.

Giving a report

Introduction
 Stating the purpose
 In my report I’ll be talking about …
 In my report today I’m going to explain …
 Today I’d like to review …
 For more impact:
 What I’d like to do today is present …
 What I’m going to explain today are problems involved in …
 Signposting a presentation
 I’ll be developing three main points. First, I’ll give you … Second, …
Lastly, …
 My report will be in two main parts. In the first part I’ll … And then I’ll …
 Firstly, I’d like to … Secondly, … And I’ll finish with …
 My first point will be to define … Then I’ll give you some data about …
And finally …
 It is often said that …, I cannot disagree with it.
 Main body

Signposting the route through a report

 I’ll begin by …-ing …
 Let’s start with …
 Let me start with some facts about …
 If I could now turn to …
 My next point is …
 Let me now move on to …
 Let me now turn to …

Using summaries
 So, that’s the general picture for … and now let’s look at …
 That completes my overview of … so now I’d like to move on to …

Using rhetorical questions

 The situation in … is deteriorating. What’s the explanation for this?
 How can we explain this?
 What can we do about it?
 How will this affect us?
 What are the implications for …?

Building arguments
 Different argument: however, on the other hand, although, in spite of this
 Consequence: therefore, so, consequently, because of this, as a result, thus
 Additional argument: moreover, in addition to this, not only … but also

Outlining options
 We’ve considered (looked at) three options.
 One way to solve this problem is to … Another is to … So, now let’s look at
the third option, which is to …
 There are two alternatives …
 One option is to … But what about the second option?
 The option which we strongly recommend for more detailed consideration is
to …
 What are the benefits?
 Now I’d like to take a look at the benefits (advantages).
 There are, however, some disadvantages.
 But there are some problems too.
  The major drawback is …
 On the other hand, …

Conclusion3

A summary
 So, to summarize (sum up) … Firstly, … Secondly, …
 At this stage I’d like to go over (to run through) …
 At this stage I’d like to summarize the main … First … Second …
 As I’ve explained today …
 As we’ve seen today …
 In conclusion I would like to …
 To sum up …
 It can be concluded that …
 Last but not least …

Recommendations and call for actions

 My suggestion (recommendation) would be (is) …
 I recommend (propose) …-ing …
 I’d like to suggest …-ing …

Closing formalities
 I’d be happy to answer your questions.
 If you have any questions, I’d be pleased (happy to answer them.
 I would welcome any comments.
 Don’t hesitate to ask questions.
 Thank you.

Discussing

Asking questions
 Could you tell me …
 I wonder if you could tell me …
 This may sound a stupid question, but I’d like to know …
 Would you mind telling me …
 I hope you don’t mind my asking, but I’d like to know …

Getting more information

 Could you tell me more about …?
  I didn’t quite follow what you said about …
 Sorry, that’s quite not quite what I meant, what I really wanted to know
was …
 Sorry to press you, but could you tell me …
 Sorry, I couldn’t quite understand why …

Managing questions
 Could I deal with that later?
 I was just coming to that.
 Could I just finish what I was saying?

Clarifying questions
 So, what you are asking is …
 If I understand the question correctly, you would like to know …
 When you say … do you mean …

Delaying answer
 Thank you for your question …
 Well, let me see …
 Oh, let me think for a moment …
 That’s a very interesting question …

Evading difficult or hostile questions

Show you understand:
 Yes, I quite see your point …
 Yes, it’s something we’ve thought about a lot. But, as you know …
 That’s an accurate observation …
 I know it’s difficult to accept the decision …

Evade by not accepting responsibility:

 I’m afraid I’m not the right person to answer that.
 I’m afraid I’m not in a position to answer that question. You should ask
Mr. …
 Mr. … is a much better person to answer that.
 Actually, it’s not for me to comment on that. You should ask Mr. …

Evade by delaying:
 I’m not sure, I’ll just have to find out …
 I’m not sure this is the right place (time) to discuss this particular question.
  I don’t think (I’m not sure) we should talk about it at this stage. Could we
leave that till later?
 Actually, I don’t have the figures with me, but I can get them to you by the
end of the week.
 I’d prefer to leave that point for now, as …
 I’d rather not answer that, if you don’t mind.

Giving opinions
 I think that … I mean …
 If you ask me … I’d say that …
 As I see it …
 As I understand I t …
 I’m convinced that …
 I (firmly) believe / assume / presume / think / have no doubt that …
 I have the impression that …
 In my estimation / judgment / opinion / view …
 It seems to me …
 To my way of thinking …
 It seems quite clear to me that …
 Obviously …
 I can’t help thinking that …
 The point is …
 The point about … is that …
 I’d like to point out that …
 Don’t you agree that …
 I’d like to point out that …
 As far as I’m concerned …
 According to my reckoning …
 What I’m getting at is …
 In my opinion …
 Personally, I think …
 I’d suggest that …
 What I mean is …
 Incredible though as it is …
 Amazingly enough …
 Believe it or not …

Agreeing
 Good idea!
 Definitely!
 Absolutely!
 Quite right!
  You have my full agreement ...
 That is absolutely true.
 That sounds fine.
 I can go along with that.
 I couldn’t agree more.
 That’s just what I was thinking.
 That’s exactly what I think.
 I see exactly what you mean ...
 I agree entirely with …
 That’s a good point.
 I couldn’t have put it better myself!
 Sure, that’s one way of looking at it ...
 I suppose so…
 I see what you are getting at …
 You took the words right out of my mouth …
 I’m glad we have found some common ground.

Disagreeing
 I see what you’re saying but …
 I understand why you think so, but …
 That’s a valid point, but …
 I’m sorry but I disagree with you about this.
 That’s different.
 I don’t agree with you.
 There is no way I could agree with that …
 However, …
 That’s not entirely true.
 On the contrary …
 I’m sorry to disagree with you, but …
 Yes, but don’t you think …
 That’s not the same thing at all.
 I'm afraid I have to disagree.
 I’m afraid I can’t agree with you.
 I’m afraid I can hardly accept the explanation / this argument.
 I’m not so sure about that.
 I see what you mean, but have you thought about ...
 I hear what you’re saying but ...
 I accept what you’re saying but …
  I see your point but …
 I agree to some extent but ...
 I understand and appreciate your position, but …
 Yes, but isn’t it also true to say that …
 True enough but …
 On the whole, I agree with you but …
 I find that very difficult to accept …
 No way! I completely disagree with you.
 Absolutely not!
 That is out of the question.
 You don’t know what you’re saying.
 I agree up to a point, but …
 There is no way I could agree with that …
 I still have my doubts …
 Well, I see things rather differently …
 OK, let’s agree to disagree (*when we know we will never agree with
somebody so there is no point continuing with the argument).

Discussing
 I sometimes think that …
 I’ve heard that …
 I think it’s right to say that …
 I don’t quite follow what you were saying about …
 I don’t quite see what you mean …
 Let me put it in another way …
 On the one hand … on other hand …
 Although it’s true to say that … it’s also true to say that …

Interrupting politely
 If I could just come in here …
 Sorry to interrupt, but …
 I’d just like to say that …
 By the way …
 That reminds me that …
 Excuse me for a second, but …
 Excuse me, but in my opinion …
 Excuse me for interrupting, but …
 I don’t mean to intrude, but …
 Before you go / move on, I’d like to say something …
 Just a moment, I like to add something here …
 If I might add something …
 Sorry to cut you off, but …
  May I say something here …
 Sorry, go ahead / Sorry, you were saying ... (after accidentally interrupting
someone)

Responses to interruptions
 I don’t want to lose my train of thought.
 Sorry, it takes me a little longer to formulate my thoughts.
 I just want to make sure you hear the full story.
 I’m not quite finished yet.
 Would you mind if I finished what I was saying?
 Is it okay if we return to my story / explanation?
 Let me finish …
 Please let me finish what I was saying …
 Could I finish my thought?
 Would you let me finish?
 I haven’t had a chance to finish what I was saying.