STARTING MOVING THE DISCUSSION So let s start with

STARTING/MOVING THE DISCUSSION So let’s start with … Then let’s move on to … I think we’d better move on … What about … And what about this idea …

SPECULATING This person looks as if (s)he’s … (S)he seems to be … They’re probably … Perhaps / Maybe they’re … (S)he could / might be …

ASKING FOR OPINION Do you think that …? Why do you think …? What’s your take on…. ? Where do you stand on…. ? What about …? In my opinion…. , would you go along with that? Would you agree / say that …? What are your thoughts on this?

GIVING AN OPINION I really believe (that) … I (tend to) think (that) … I just can’t understand how / why … It seems to me (that) … I really don’t think … In my opinion / view … What I’m saying is … From my point of view …

GIVING A REASON The (main) reason for this is that … I think /I’d say this is because … One reason why … This can be explained quite easily … For this reason …

ADDING REASONS Of course, … This means that … I mean … This could cause … Because …

COMPARISON One similariry, which stands out is that … One thing that pictures have in common is … One of the similarities between the two pictures is … The most obvious / important / apparent similarity for me between the pictures is … A striking similarity is … People in both pictures have a lot in common, for example … People in the first picture are spending their free time, and so do the people in the second picture. The pictures are quite / really similar in terms of …

CONTRAST Although the pictures have much in common, the striking difference is … One of these pictures … while the other … The only difference between the pictures that I can see is … In comparison to … In the first picture … whereas in the second picture … This one …, but on the other hand another one … Here / In this photo, there is/are/ someone is …, whereas in this photo … On the other hand, this photo shows … The top photo … The one underneath …

DISAGREE Well, I’m not sure I’d totally agree with that / you, because … Yes, but don’t you think … Well, even if you’re right, what about … I tend to disagree with you there. You might be right, but … That’s a good point, but … I don’t think it’s … I’d argue that … We don’t see eye to eye. I take your point but… That’s not always the case I beg to differ Isn’t it more a case of…

AGREE Yes, that’s (you’re) probably right. So do I. Well yes, I do think that … Yes, all right – you could be right. I suppose so. Absolutely! Definitely! We see eye to eye. Yeah, I’d go along with that. You took the words right out of my mouth. I couldn’t agree more. You have a point there. I’m with you 100% on this one.

IMPRESSIVE STRUCTURES Coming back to what (Javi) was I think it’s Another point It’s also worth saying about …. important not I’d like to add bearing in mind I’d also like to to forget that about … is … that … point out that … … The vast majority of At the end of When all’s said people tend to the day … and done … think that…

MAKING SUGGESTIONS Why not + infinitive without to – Why not phone of your friends? Why + infinitive without to - don’t we / Why don’t we just send them an e-mail? Let’s + infinitive without to – Let’s have a party. How about + verb + ing – How about meeting up after work tomorrow? It might be a thought + to infinitive – It might be a thought to put on some sun cream.

POINTING OUT SOMETHING OBVIOUS Obviously / clearly / undoubtedly / of course Without a doubt … Needless to say … It goes without saying that …

PERSONALISING Speaking from personal experience, … It’s funny I was just thinking about this the other day. For me personally, . . . This is a topic that is particularly close to my heart… My gut/initial reaction is… If I were to choose one of these situations (part 2 pictures), I’d go with… because…

OTHER PEOPLE’S ARGUMENTS Some people say that … It is sometimes / often said that … It can be argued that … One argument often made is that …

PRESENTING THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW Having said that, I believe … On the other hand, I’d argue that … However, I’m not sure I agree. I tend to think that … From my point of view …

SUMMARISING/CONCLUSION So what are we going to decide (on) …? From our discussion, I’d say that we’re agreed on … Let’s agree / disagree on …

EXPRESSIONS TO OFFER EXAMPLES For example, … For instance, … By way of example, … Take … for example … To illustrate this … To give you an example, … To show you what I mean …