Useful Phrases Cheatsheet

The one page to print and tuck into your Logbook. Every phrase here is band-5+ standard. Use freely.

🎙️ Opening your turn (P)

• "From my perspective…"
• "Personally, I'd argue that…"
• "What strikes me is…"
• "It seems to me that…"
• "Speaking as someone who…"
• "My take is that…"
• "If I had to pick one position…"

🧠 Explaining (E)

• "The reason for this is…"
• "What I mean is…"
• "In other words…"
• "The underlying point is…"
• "If we unpack this…"
• "Because, fundamentally…"
• "The logic here is…"

📖 Citing examples (E)

• "On P.__, we see…"
• "A clear example of this is…"
• "Take, for instance,…"
• "Consider the moment when…"
• "Shakespeare gives us a striking example: on P.__,…"
• "In the trial scene, for example,…"
• "What happens on P.__ is exactly this:…"

🌍 Linking to today (L)

• "This still happens today when…"
• "Hong Kong students experience this in…"
• "What strikes me 400 years later is…"
• "If Shakespeare set this in 2026, he'd probably show…"
• "We see the same pattern in…"
• "This connects to a wider issue about…"
• "The lesson for us today is…"

🔗 Building on others

• "Building on what ____ just said…"
• "Picking up on the point about ____…"
• "I really like the framing of ____ — and I'd add…"
• "That reminds me of ____…"
• "To extend that idea…"
• "From a slightly different angle…"
• "I want to add a related point…"

🤝 Agreeing (with extension!)

• "I agree, especially because…"
• "Same view — and what's more,…"
• "Absolutely, and I'd push it further by saying…"
• "Couldn't agree more, particularly when you mentioned…"
• "Yes, and what's interesting is…"

🌀 Politely disagreeing

• "That's a really thoughtful point. I see it slightly differently, though, because…"
• "I'd push back gently on that…"
• "I see where you're coming from, but…"
• "There's truth to that, but I'd add a nuance…"
• "I'd take it in a different direction…"

🪜 Paraphrasing

• "So what you're saying is… yes, and…"
• "If I understand you correctly,… and to build on that,…"
• "Let me restate that: ____. I'd add that…"

🙋 Inviting others

• "____, you've been listening — what's your take?"
• "____, I'd love to hear your view on this."
• "What do you think, ____?"
• "Does anyone see it differently?"
• "Can we hear from ____ on this?"
• "____, your reaction to that?"

🆘 Buying time / rescuing

• "Let me think for a moment."
• "That's a great question — let me unpack it."
• "Actually, that reminds me of…"
• "Can I add something I just thought of?"
• "Could you say a bit more about that?"

🪢 Self-correcting

• "She — sorry, he — was the one who…"
• "Let me rephrase that: what I mean is…"
• "Actually, that's not quite right — on P.__, it's…"
• "To be precise…"

⏰ Wrapping up

• "So overall, the three of us seem to agree that…"
• "To wrap this up,…"
• "Looking back over what we've said,…"
• "If we had to summarise…"
• "The play ultimately asks us to think about…"

🎯 High-impact reflective phrases (sprinkle 1–2)

• "Shakespeare invites us to consider…"
• "Underneath the plot, the story is really about…"
• "What's quietly powerful about this scene is…"
• "The paradox is that…"
• "At the heart of it, the play asks whether…"
• "Maybe the harder question is…"

💬 Useful 2-word sentence connectors

• "Even so,…"
• "That said,…"
• "More crucially,…"
• "What's more,…"
• "Furthermore,…"
• "Conversely,…"
• "Granted,…"
• "Admittedly,…"
• "Notably,…"

🔑 Three-word power adjectives

• "deeply unsettling"
• "morally complex"
• "remarkably modern"
• "quietly devastating"
• "ethically dubious"
• "strikingly relevant"
• "fundamentally flawed"
• "profoundly tragic"
• "almost paradoxical"

📋 The one-page summary

If you only memorise 8 phrases, make it these:

1. "From my perspective…" (opener)
2. "Building on what ____ said,…" (build)
3. "On P.__, we see…" (example with page)
4. "This still happens today when…" (link)
5. "____, what do you think?" (invite)
6. "That's a really thoughtful point. I see it slightly differently because…" (polite disagreement)
7. "Let me think for a moment." (rescue)
8. "So overall, the play ultimately asks us…" (wrap-up)

Print this page. Highlight the 8. Done.

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