Debating
Useful debating phrases
Opening a debate
■ Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome. The motion for debate today is…
Introducing arguments
■ Let us come to our first/second/next argument…
■ The first/second reason why we propose/oppose this motion is…
■ We’d like to draw your attention to…
Giving your opinion
Strong
■ We are convinced that…
■ It’s perfectly clear to us that…
Neutral
■ As we see it, …
■ From an ethical point of view…
Tentative
■ We are inclined to think that…
■ We tend to favour the view that…
Disagreeing
Strong
■ We disagree completely!
■ That’s out of the question.
■ We’ve never heard such utter nonsense!
■ We must contradict the ridiculous arguments of the previous speaker.
Neutral
■ We can’t agree with that.
■ We can’t go along with that.
■ We are afraid we have to disagree with you there.
Tentative
■ We appreciate your point of view, but…
■ Do you really think so?
■Yes, but aren’t you forgetting…?
■ That may be true, but…
Supporting your argument
■ Let us give you an example…
■ It’s common knowledge that…
■ Statistics show that…
■ According to experts…
■ Therefore…
Referring to a previous speaker
■ The previous speaker brought up an interesting point concerning…
■ Going back to what the first speaker said…
Interrupting politely
■ Sorry, could I just add something here?
■ If I may interrupt you for a moment, …
Clarifying information
■ I’m not sure I understand what you mean by…
Checking that you have understood
■ Are you suggesting that …?
■ So what you’re saying is…?
■ If I understood correctly, you’re implying that…
Checking that someone else has understood
■ Do you see what I mean?
Summarizing
■ To conclude…
■ To summarize this debate…
■ For all these reasons, we beg you to support/oppose the motion.