Apologizing

• Don’t be upset, but . . .
• It was a slip of the tongue.
• I said it by mistake.
• I am sorry that . . .

(Dis)agreeing

• One hundred percent.
• Without question.
• Exactly right.
• Most certainly.
• Without doubt.
• In no way . . .
• That isn’t true at all.
• That is an exaggeration.
• I really can’t believe that.
• In principle that is true, but . . .
• Admittedly that is true, but . . .
• That’s one way to say it.
• Only up to a certain point.
• Certainly. Why not?
• I agree.

Closing

• That is all there is to say.
• That is all for now.
• To sum up . . .
• And there is the problem.
• I hope it is only a matter of time.
• That remains to be seen.

Filler

• Understandably.
• Frankly speaking . . .
• Between you and me . . .
• Anyway . . .
• Well then . . .
• Well, as a matter of fact . . .
• How can I put it?
• I must say that . . .
• First . . .
• Second . . .
• I would like you to know that . . .
• I am afraid that . . .
• Now and then it seems to me that . . .
• After all . . .
• As far as I am concerned . . .
• More and more . . .
• Actually . . .
• All joking aside . . .
• Now seriously . . .

Elaborating

• To be more precise . . .
• And what’s more . . .
• Since I am already talking about it . . .
• I would like to emphasize that . . .
• Should I explain in greater detail?
• Allow me to say it another way.
• That is to say . . .
• Nevertheless . . .
• Even though . . .
• That sounds like . . .
• And that is why . . .

Opening

• Thank you very much.
• That is a good question.
• That is such a difficult question.
• Once upon a time, long ago . . .

Passing

• Can you tell me please . . . ?
• Would you be interested in us talking about something else?
• And what do you think?

Qualifying

• To tell you the truth . . .
• I presume that . . .
• I hope that . . .
• In my opinion . . .
• If that is true . . .
• I don’t know exactly.
• I would like to think that . . .
• The way I see it is that . . .
• As you may know . . .
• I don’t have a big interest in that.
• If I understand correctly . . .
• As you already know . . .
• That isn’t such a big problem.
• That is a matter of opinion.
• As far as I know . . .
• I have the impression that . . .
• It is usually true that . . .
• You never know, but . . .
• I haven’t thought about it before, but . . .
• If I am not mistaken . . .
• I am not certain whether . . .
• Like every other man/woman . . .
• I have my own opinion on it, but . . .
• I am not an expert, but . . .

Quoting

• She said something like . . .
• My wife/husband pointed out that . . .
• Recently, I heard that . . .
• My better half said . . .

Switching

• Now it occurs to me that . . .
• By the way . . .
• I have an interesting story about it.
• And besides that . . .
• Oh, I nearly forgot . . .
• And one more thing . . .
• On the other hand . . .