20 Polite Phrases for Dangerous Topics: Religion & Politics

Vanessa: I'm so glad that  

that president won the election. He is going to  change our country and make it a better place.  

What? Are you kidding? That president is terrible.  He is going to completely ruin our country. Oh,  

no. Have you ever been in a situation like this  where there is a controversial heavy topic? You  

want to express your opinion, but you want to  say it politely, but you don't want to just  

stay silent? What can you say? Hi, I'm Vanessa  from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com, and today you  

are going to learn 20 phrases that you can use  to be polite and express your opinion during  

controversial conversations. And like always,  I've created a free PDF worksheet for you to  

download today with all of today's controversial  expressions, expressions that you can use to  

express yourself completely, but also be polite.  You can click on the link in the description  

to download this free PDF worksheet today. Before we get started with these controversial  

phrases, I want to give a little disclaimer. I  wanted to add some controversial phrases to these  

polite expressions so that you could see how they  might be used in a conversation. Not all of these  

controversial expressions are my opinion, but I  wanted to give them as an example, because you  

will probably hear this in real conversations,  whether it's with your family members, with your  

friends, with your English speaking friends. I'm  sure you'll hear them so I want to give you lots  

of examples. So please take the examples with  a grain of salt. This means don't take them  

seriously, but do learn the polite expressions.  All right, let's get started with the first one. 

First, polite controversial expression is, "This  is just my opinion, but Americans are really rude  

when they travel." So you are starting this off  by letting them know, this is just my opinion,  

but you still want to share your opinion, right?  "This is just my opinion, but," great phrase.  

Let's go to the next one. "I'm not an expert,  but I'd rather be a woman now than in any other  

time in history." Sometimes I've been talking  with someone who says, "I don't even want to  

have children. The world is so terrible today.  What if I had a girl? It would be so terrible  

for her." Well, what if you said, "You know what?  I'm not an expert, but I'd rather be a woman now  

than in any other time in history. In the past,  women had it way worse." Well, maybe this is just  

your opinion. You're not an expert, you're not  a professional in women's history, but you know  

what? You still want to share your opinion. All right, let's go to the next controversial  

polite phrase. "From what I've heard, the US  president is a little bit unstable." Well,  

this is just saying that you're not an expert,  you don't really know, you've just heard some  

things. Maybe you read some articles, maybe you  listened to some podcasts, maybe you heard your  

friends talking. So you can just say, "Well,  from what I've heard," this doesn't mean that  

it's the facts, but it's just your opinion.  Polite controversial expression number four,  

is a little tricky. You could say, "I don't mean  this the wrong way," or, "Please don't take this  

the wrong way, but I think organized religion has  done more harm than good." Wow. You're about to  

set fire to a giant, explosive conversation with  that phrase, but you started this off by saying,  

"Please don't take this the wrong way." That  means maybe you are very serious about your  

religion and the person who's talking knows that.  So they're trying to say, "Hey, it's not personal.  

I'm not trying to say this in a personal way,  this is just my opinion from my perspective.  

So please don't take this the wrong way." But this phrase is very tricky because it can  

be said in a way that means, "I really don't care  what you think. I really don't care if I offend  

you, I'm going to say something that's going to  make you angry and I don't care." So it depends  

on your tone of voice. What if I had said it this  way, "I don't mean this the wrong way, but I think  

that organized religion has done more harm than  good." Okay, you can tell kind of my tone of voice  

is not caring, I'm not trying to be thoughtful or  careful with the way I say it, I'm just saying it  

fast and, "Well, please don't take this the wrong  way, but I think..." It's a little too harsh and  

brisk. So maybe you do want to offend the other  person, well, you can say it like that, but if you  

don't want to offend the other person, just say  it with a polite and kind tone of voice, "Please  

don't take this the wrong way, but I think,"  and then you can say your controversial opinion. 

All right, let's go to the next phrase.  "If you ask me, eating a vegan diet is  

the only way to save our planet. If you ask  me..." Well, okay, maybe they didn't ask you,  

but you're just sharing here that this is my  opinion. "If you ask me, maybe if I ask you,  

you'll have a different opinion, but if you  ask me," and then you're controversial opinion.  

Polite controversial expression number six is, "It  could be that..." Here you are restating what the  

other person said and then you'll say your own  opinion. Let's take a look at an example. Let's  

imagine that someone said, "Hey yeah, the earth is  warming, but it's not because of humans. It's just  

natural." Well, you can use this phrase, "It could  be that the earth is naturally warming and it's  

not due to humans, but I'm still going to try to  recycle and reduce the waste that I have." Okay,  

so here you're affirming what they said, "I  heard you. It could be that you're right,  

I don't know, but it's not going to change  my actions." So this is a really great way  

to say your opinion. They know that you don't  agree, but you're still being polite about it. 

Polite controversial expression number seven is,  "As far as I know, most religions have been used  

as weapons of war in the past, but I'd love  to hear your opinion." Okay, anything related  

to religion often gets inflammatory very fast, so  feel free to insert whatever controversial opinion  

you would like to hear, something about politics,  something about another heavy topic of the day,  

but our key phrase here, "As far as I know," shows  that you're not an expert. You're just sharing  

your opinion, and you can tack on to the end,  "But I'd love to hear your opinion." It means that  

you're not just blindly sharing what you think,  you just said a really inflammatory, controversial  

statement. So now you're going to give them some  time because you care about that other person  

and you're going to say, "But I'd love to hear  what you think." Or, "But I'd love to hear your  

opinion." In fact, you could add this phrase to  the end of any of these controversial statements.  

You're kind of opening up the floor and letting  the other person have room to speak after you've  

just said something that lit the house on fire. All right, let's go to our next controversial  

polite phrase. Polite phrase number eight,  "Personally speaking, I think getting vaccinated  

for infectious diseases is the best way to care  for yourself and others. What do you think?" Oh,  

well, maybe they don't agree with you, maybe  you already know that they don't agree with you,  

but you're using this polite phrase, "Personally  speaking, it's just my personal opinion,  

man. It's fine." And then you can open the floor  and say, "But what do you think?" Great thing to  

say. Polite controversial expression number nine,  "To put it another way, you'd be taking away a  

basic human right for half the population. To  put it another way..." So maybe you're having  

this conversation and the other person just isn't  really understanding where you're coming from,  

so you try to boil it down and make it as  simple and clear as possible. So you say,  

"To put it another way, but I'd love to hear  what you think." You can always add that to  

the end because in the end, I hope that you  really do care what the other person thinks. 

Controversial polite expression number  10, "The point I'm trying to make is  

giving someone absolute power over our country  is a bad idea." So here you're trying to, again,  

boil down or summarize what you're saying, "The  point I'm trying to make is it's not about that  

specific guy, it's not about that specific woman,  in fact, it's about the concept in general." So  

you're trying to summarize your opinion.  Polite controversial expression number 11,  

"I'm not saying that immigration is not a serious  issue. What I'm trying to say is I don't think  

immigrants should be treated like criminals  for just trying to find a better life." Okay,  

so this is a two part expression. First, we've  got the misunderstanding. If you are at different  

points of the spectrum, you could say, "I'm  not saying that," because maybe they said,  

"Hey, you think immigration is not a big deal."  You say, "I'm not saying that immigration is  

not a big deal, but what I really mean is..."  and then you can try to clarify your opinion,  

because you've probably been going around in  circles and not really getting to the point. 

All right, let's get to the next expression.  Expression number 12, "I'm not entirely convinced  

that aliens are real, but you never know." So here  we're saying, "You know what? I'm not 100% either,  

but I'm not entirely convinced, but you never  know." So you're trying to find some common  

ground. The other person says, "Absolutely not.  There are no aliens. There will never be aliens.  

This is impossible." You might say, "Well, I'm  not entirely convinced myself, but you never  

know." So you're kind of leaving that door open  and saying, "Hey, I agree too, but I still want  

to have some room for possibility." Expression  number 13, "I see what you're saying, but... I  

hear what you're saying, but..." shows you're  listening, but then you also want to share your  

opinion. "I see what you're saying, but I just  think gender identity is a very personal issue  

and we shouldn't treat people differently based on  that." Okay, well, you're acknowledging that they  

have said something different, but you still want  to share your opinion. "I see what you're saying,  

but here's my controversial opinion." Controversial phrase number 14, "Hear  

me out on this." Hear me out on this means the  other person's talking so much, they're just not  

giving you room to speak and they just shot down  your idea right away and said, "No, that's not  

a good idea." So you use this phrase, "Hey, okay,  hear me out on this. By giving education to women  

and girls, we could drastically reduce poverty  around the world. We have to focus on this."  

Okay, they gave you one second to be able to  say your opinion because you used that phrase,  

"Hear me out on this." "Please listen to me,"  is what you're really trying to say. "Hear me  

out on this. I just want to tell you what  I think. Please listen for just a moment." 

All right, let's go to our next phrase.  Controversial polite phrase number 15 is a  

very indirect phrase, "I wonder if it's possible  that there was some propaganda involved in the  

research of this. Do you know who funded this  research? I wonder if it's possible that..." So  

we've got wonder. We've got, "If it's possible,"  this is a very indirect. So maybe you think,  

"Nope, that is absolutely biased. There was a  lot of propaganda in that," but you don't want  

to say it so directly. You could use this indirect  phrase, "I wonder if it's possible that there was  

some propaganda involved in this project. Do you  know who funded the research?" Oh, lovely phrase. 

Let's go to the next one. Controversial, but  polite phrase number 16 is, "I'm not sure if it's  

true that the world is run by a secret society  of lizard people, but who am I to." Say this  

phrase is often used for conspiracy theories or  things that you really just don't want to debate.  

You could say, "I'm not sure it's true that I  don't know your religion is the best religion,  

but who am I to say?" That last phrase is key  here. It means, "I'm not in authority, so don't  

take my opinion for it. You can still believe  what you want to believe. Who am I to say?" It  

kind of puts yourself out of the spotlight and  it allows the other person to keep the integrity  

of their position. And it can also mean, "Hey,  I don't want to debate this. Who am I to say I  

don't really want to talk about this anymore." All right, let's go to our next phrase. Phrase  

number 17 is kind of soft, but kind of direct  too, "I'm afraid I don't agree that the earth is  

flat. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that  it is round. I'm afraid I don't agree that..."  

So you're not really afraid here, you're  not scared of something, but that phrase,  

"I'm afraid that" is a very soft way to introduce  something. Let's say that your boss asks you,  

"Hey, are you going to have that project done  by 3:00 PM?" You could use this lovely phrase,  

"I'm afraid that I won't have it done by 3:00 PM,  but I can have it finished by the end of the day."  

It's a very soft way to introduce something. All right, let's go to our next phrase.  

Controversial polite phrase number 18 also uses,  "I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I don't really know  

enough to speak on that topic, but here's my  opinion. It seems like the president's economic  

policy is really going to damage the poorest in  our country." Okay, so here at the beginning,  

you are emphasizing that, "I'm not an expert."  That's kind of the theme with a lot of these as  

you're trying to remind the other person, and  a good reminder to yourself, that this is just  

your opinion. So you can use this great phrase,  "I'm afraid that I don't really know enough to  

speak on it, but here, I'm going to speak on it  anyway." And you can always tack onto the end,  

"But I'd love to hear what you think," is just  a good way to open the floor to someone else. 

All right, let's go to the next phrase.  Controversial, but polite phrase number 19,  

we're almost at the end, is kind of a two  for one deal. It is, "I could be wrong,  

or correct me if I'm wrong, but invading that  country was an act of war that wasn't justified  

so I think the politicians should be tried as war  criminals." Okay, that's a very big statement and  

you're kind of opening it up to say, "Correct me  if I'm wrong. Well, I could be wrong," and you're  

just kind of prefacing it with that idea that,  "I'm not an expert, but here's my opinion anyway." 

And our final controversial, but polite expression  is for when someone else says a very inflammatory  

statement that you just can't be silent about, but  maybe you realize, "Hey, I don't want to launch  

into a huge conversation with you about it."  Maybe they say, "Well, men are just natural born  

leaders. Women can't be leaders. Women can't be in  politics. They can't be administrators. Men will  

always be better at that." Well, if you disagree,  you can simply say, "Well, that's one way of  

looking at it." So you're letting them know,  "That's one way of perceiving this situation. I  

have a different opinion, but I'm going to kind of  cut off the conversation here because I don't want  

to talk about it. Well, that's one way of looking  at it." And it kind of preserves your dignity too,  

because you're not just arguing senselessly with  someone who you don't agree with and you don't  

ever think will come to your way of seeing things. Whew. I hope that these 20 controversial,  

but polite expressions help you the next time  that you're in a sticky situation where you're  

talking about something controversial, but  you would love to be polite and maintain a  

relationship with the other person. And  don't miss the free PDF worksheet that I  

have created for you today with all of these  important phrases. You want to make sure that  

you have them in your vocabulary toolbox when  you need to use them. So please download the  

free worksheet with all of these expressions,  sample sentences, ideas and ways to use them,  

some tips, some things to avoid that I talked  about in this lesson. Download this worksheet.  

You can click on the link below to do that. Well, thank you so much for learning English with  

me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new  lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait,  

are you ready for more? I recommend watching  this video next where you will learn 20 polite  

expressions that you can use instead of, "I  don't like it." What if your neighbor gives  

you some food that you just don't like and  you don't want her to give it to you again  

and again? What can you politely say? Watch that  video to find out and I'll see you there. Bye.