Useful phrases for discussions and essays

Opinion

It seems to me that ...

In my opinion, ...

My personal view is that ...

In my experience ...

As far as I understand / can see, ...

As I see it, ... / From my point of view ...

As far as I know ... / From what I know ...

I might be wrong but ...

If I am not mistaken ...

I believe one can (safely) say ...

It is claimed that ...

I must admit that ...

I cannot deny that ...

I can imagine that ...

I think/believe/suppose ... ..

Personally, I think ...

That is why I think ...

I am sure/certain/convinced that ...

I am not sure/certain, but ...

I am not sure, because I don't know the situation exactly.

I am not convinced that ...

 

Facts

The fact is that

The (main) point is that ...

This proves that ...

What it comes down to is that ...

It is obvious that ...

It is certain that ...

One can say that ...

It is clear that ...

There is no doubt that ...

 

To agree - totally

There are many reasons for ... Es gibt viele Gründe für ...

There is no doubt about it that ... Es gibt keinen Zweifel daran, dass ...

I simply must agree with that. Ich stimme dem unbedingt zu.

I completely/absolutely agree with the author. Ich stimme dem Autor absolut zu.

To agree – to a certain degree

It is only partly true that...

That seems obvious, but ...

That is not necessarily so.

It is not as simple as it seems.

Under certain circumstances ...

 

To disagree

The problem is that ...

I (very much) doubt whether ...

This is in complete contradiction to ...

What is even worse, ...

I cannot share this / that / the view.

I cannot agree with this idea.

What I object to is ...

Unlike many people I think ...

Mostly for written essays:

To link arguments

First of all, I think ... Zuerst einmal denke ich ...

Not only that, but I also think that ... Nicht nur dies, ich denke auch, dass ...

Not only are they ..., they are also ... Sie sind nicht nur ..., sondern auch ...

There are various/several/many reasons for this. Dafür gibt es verschiedene/mehrere/viele Gründe.

First, ... / Firstly, ... Erstens ...

Second, ... / Secondly, ... Zweitens ...

Moreover, ... / Furthermore, ... / In addition, ... Außerdem ...

Another significant point is that ... Ein weiterer wichtiger Punkt ist, dass ...

Finally, ... Schließlich ...

On the one hand, ... On the other hand, ... Einerseits ... Andererseits ...

In contrast to this is ... Im Gegensatz dazu steht ...

Because of ... Wegen ...

That is why ... Deshalb ...

After all, ... Schließlich / Immerhin ...

The reason is that ... Der Grund dafür ist, dass ...

In that respect ... In dieser Beziehung ...

The result of this is that ... Das Ergebnis davon ist, dass...

Another aspect/point is that ... Ein weiterer Aspekt ist ...

It is because ... Das liegt daran, weil ...

Although it is true that ... it would be wrong to claim that ...

Obwohl ... wahr ist, wäre es falsch zu behaupten ...

That may sometimes be true, but ... Das trifft in gewissen Fällen vielleicht zu, aber ...

One could argue that ..., but ... Man könnte entgegnen, dass ... aber ...

 

Examples

Take for example (the case of) ... Nehmen wir z.B. (den Fall von) ...

Look at ... Betrachten wir ...

For instance ... / For example ... Zum Beispiel ...

Let me give you an example. Ich möchte hier ein Beispiel anführen.

 

Addition/ending

Most probably ... Aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach ...

It appears to be ... Es scheint ... zu sein.

It is important to mention that... Es ist wichtig zu erwähnen, dass ...

As I already indicated ... Wie ich bereits ankündigte, ...

In other words, ... Anders ausgedrückt ...

I am most concerned about ... Am meisten bin ich besorgt um ...

I should like to repeat once again that ... Ich möchte noch einmal wiederholen, dass ...

I should like to emphasise that ... Ich möchte betonen, dass ...

I would (just) like to add ... Ich möchte (nur noch) hinzufügen ...

So all in all I believe that... Alles in allem glaube ich, dass ...

(In) summing up it can be said that ... Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass ...

Weighing the pros and cons, I come to the conclusion that ...