language learning center · C1 · Lesson 9
Counterargument and emphasis
Anticipate a credible counterargument and use advanced emphasis to show why your main claim still holds.
Understand and learn
Work from a natural example to useful language, one small pattern, a spoken attempt, and a response that is relevant to your life.
Grace
Admittedly, the initial investment is substantial, and that should not be minimised.
Grace states the counterargument fairly before responding.
Ethan
Then why proceed before costs come down?
Ethan turns the concession into a direct challenge.
Grace
Because what is at stake is not merely the purchase price, but the cost of delaying the transition.
Grace uses a cleft structure to shift the central criterion.
Ethan
So not only would delay preserve the current expense; it could also make the eventual change more disruptive.
Ethan uses inversion to emphasise two cumulative consequences.
Notice, try, and speak
Understand a natural example and learn a small set of useful words, phrases, and patterns.
Useful words and phrases
These items were selected by the lesson curriculum for practical use—not extracted as an every-word list.
Admittedly,…
Concede a credible opposing point.
Admittedly, the initial investment is substantial, and that should not be minimised.
That should not be minimised; nevertheless,…
Respect the objection before maintaining your claim.
Admittedly, the initial investment is substantial, and that should not be minimised.
What is at stake is…
Foreground the decisive issue.
Because what is at stake is not merely the purchase price, but the cost of delaying the transition.
Not only would…, but it could also…
Emphasise cumulative hypothetical effects.
So not only would delay preserve the current expense; it could also make the eventual change more disruptive.
The stronger objection would be…
Identify the counterargument that deserves a real answer.
The stronger objection would be…
Notice, try, and speak
Which sentence uses fronted “not only” correctly?
Make it yours
Present an English argument with one fair concession, one decisive reframing, and one correctly inverted “not only” sentence.
Choose a position you can defend without dismissing its strongest objection.
Use it with someone
Build a counterargument in English
- 1. Admittedly,…
- 2. That should not be minimised; nevertheless,…
- 3. What is at stake is…
- 4. Not only would…, but it could also…
- 5. The stronger objection would be…