OFFICIAL CHEAT SHEET · 30 EMERGENCY PHRASES
Phrase Bank — Emergency English
Use them without guilt. Buy time, keep talking, recover the flow.
Tap the mic to practice a phrase out loud, then play it back to check yourself.
⏱BUY TIME TO THINK
- “Let me think for a second…”
- “That's a good question.”
- “How can I put this…”
- “Give me a moment to think.”
- “Well, it depends…”
- “Hmm, let me see.”
?ASK FOR CLARIFICATION
- “Could you say that again?”
- “I'm not sure I follow.”
- “What do you mean by that?”
- “Could you slow down a bit?”
- “Can you give me an example?”
- “Just to make sure I got it…”
↔REPHRASE WHEN STUCK
- “What I mean is…”
- “In other words…”
- “Let me rephrase that.”
- “It's kind of like…”
- “The point I'm trying to make…”
- “Basically,…”
↺GET BACK ON TRACK
- “Where was I?”
- “I lost my train of thought.”
- “Going back to what I said…”
- “As I was saying…”
- “Anyway, moving on…”
- “Let me start over.”
⚖DISAGREE / SHARE OPINIONS
- “I see your point, but…”
- “I'd say it's more like…”
- “I'm not so sure about that.”
- “From my perspective,…”
- “That's one way to look at it.”
- “I'd push back a little on that.”