总之 / 换句话说 / 总而言之: discourse markers

篇章 / discourse

Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral

…。总之/总而言之，+ conclusion | …，换句话说，+ reformulation

To structure a talk or an essay:

• 总之 / 总而言之 (more formal) = "in short, all in all": sums up.

• 换句话说 = "in other words": rephrases for clarity.

• 也就是说 = "that is to say".

• 一方面…另一方面…, 首先…其次…最后… to organise.

These markers are gold in the HSK 5 writing section.

Examples

少开车、少用塑料袋、节约用水……总之，环保要从小事做起。
Shǎo kāi chē, shǎo yòng sùliàodài, jiéyuē yòng shuǐ……zǒngzhī, huánbǎo yào cóng xiǎo shì zuò qǐ.
Drive less, use fewer plastic bags, save water… in short, going green starts with little things.
他是个低碳生活者，换句话说，他尽量不浪费任何资源。
Tā shì ge dītàn shēnghuó zhě, huàn jù huà shuō, tā jǐnliàng bú làngfèi rènhé zīyuán.
He lives low-carbon; in other words, he tries not to waste any resource.
总而言之，这个方案利大于弊。
Zǒng ér yán zhī, zhège fāngàn lì dà yú bì.
All in all, this plan does more good than harm.

Common mistakes

✗ 总之 at the start of a text: it concludes; it can't open.

✗ 换句话说 followed by a new idea: it must rephrase the same idea.