Comment by kimixa
4 days ago
As a Brit, I'm not quite sure this article is right in it's declaration it's a universal "English" thing and not more "American English".
4 days ago
As a Brit, I'm not quite sure this article is right in it's declaration it's a universal "English" thing and not more "American English".
I've had this discussion with American friends quite recently, it's very much an American English thing to not use those constructions. Certainly in British, New Zealand, and Australian English we do all the time.
I would say Australian English relies on this negation even more than British English, to the point of being confusing without more cultural context.
Yeah nah... nah yeah, you're right.
Yeah, Kiwi English also, e.g. describing something as "not bad" rather than "good" is normal.
> How's things? > Not bad.
Yep, "not bad" is very very common here - definitely more so than "decent".
"How are you?" "Not too bad" always makes me smile. Such a British answer.
I say and hear it all the time in the US...
"Can't complain"
Yeah, same as a French speaker first living in the US, I have to sometimes refrain myself from calling things “just fine”, “will do” or “not bad”. These are still used in American English, but I tend to use them for cases were people normally use more positive/stronger version.
Like at a grocery store: “is that enough? That will do yes -> yes that’s perfect”
Same for a German.
Scales of goodness of expressions are shifted relative to English: "good" (gut) to a German means "it totally fulfills all my needs and expectations, so it is perfect for my purpose". "very good" (sehr gut) means "it exceeds all my expectations" and to a German already sounds like total hyperbole. Anything like "delightful" or "excellent" to a German sounds either totally sleazy or sarcastic.
When something is not perfect but adequate and we are happy with it, we would say something like "not bad", "it's fine" or "you can leave it like that". Which to the english speaking world has totally different connotations and can lead to rather interesting misunderstandings.
And especially "not bad" ("nicht schlecht") can be confusing in that it is sometimes something rather positive. It, in German and said in the right tone of voice" can mean "this is suprisingly good".
Two countries divided by a common language . . .