Hotly debatable – UP your English.

Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Speak like a native: Hotly debatable – UP your English.

Meetings often involve discussions and possibly lead to heated debates on some matter of importance. Here are 1 + 7 UP your English terms to help you keep up with the natives and allow you to add your two cents (seinen Senf dazugeben) (BTY – that was no. 1).

1. to ‘advocate sth’ means that you support sth e.g. “I don’t advocate the use of funds in such a way.”
2. to ‘oppose sth’ means that you are against sb/sth e.g. “I bitterly oppose the use of money in that way”.
3. to ‘contend / maintain sth’ both mean that you say sth is true, especially used in an argument e.g. “I would contend that your thinking is flawed on this point”.
4. to ‘dismiss sth’ is to decide that sb/sth is not important and not worth thinking or talking about e.g. “The suggestion should not be dismissed out of hand” (= without thinking about it).
5. to ‘digress’ or more colloquially ‘fly/go off at a tangent’ is when you start to talk about sth that is not connected with the main point of what you are saying e.g. “Stick to the point, please, you’re digressing/going off at a tangent again”
6. to play devil’s advocate’ is when a person expresses an opinion that they do not really hold in order to encourage a discussion about a subject e.g. “Cut the BS, Dave, you’re just playing devil’s advocate to test the waters. (das Terrain sonderien)”

Happy discussing