Comment by skybrian
3 days ago
Maybe there's a difference in frequency of usage, but we also say things like "he's not wrong" pretty often in English.
3 days ago
Maybe there's a difference in frequency of usage, but we also say things like "he's not wrong" pretty often in English.
I reckon a decept part of that is due to American English vs. British English.
A great example of this is the Korean War, where a British brigadier in an extremely difficult situation told an American general "Things are a bit sticky, sir" - who interpreted it as "Could be better, but we're holding the line". The misunderstanding resulted in 500 dead and captured.
FWIW I’m not quite convinced there’s that much of a dialectical divide: “Not bad,” “he’s not wrong,” etc. sound entirely natural to me in American English.
The main difference may be in the range of meanings.
In a scale of 0 to 10 where "bad" is 0, one side will take "not bad" as a 4~5 while the other side meant it as 7~8.
"American English" has so many dialects and regional variations that aren't even mutually intelligible that making statements about it is pointless anyway.
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Is that really the same thing? We aren't just talking about understatement.
ngl