You're not fluent in English if you don't know this

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 394

  • @martinvoet217
    @martinvoet217 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +30

    I wouldn't claim your channel lacks informativeness. In fact, I'd go so far as to not entirely fail to thank you for your efforts, which are far from unappreciated.

  • @lxathu
    @lxathu 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +85

    "Thrice" - I like this word.
    When I taught it to my children and my daughter dared to use it in an essay, the teacher asked who she had heard that nonsense from and sent me a message not to teach silly things to anyone, I was not a teacher after all.
    I even checked its frequency in ngram viewer of google and saw that although its frequency in written material is six times less than that of "three times", it's not vanished yet.
    And now I am grateful for hearing it from someone's mouth who does matter.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  11 หลายเดือนก่อน +55

      The teacher is wrong. We all need thrice in our lives. Let's bring it back.

    • @ArtBlade
      @ArtBlade 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      ​@@LetThemTalkTV Cock-a-doodle once. “I shall not deny him!”. Cock-a-doodle twice. “I shall not deny him!”.
      Cock-a-doodle thrice. “I deny him!”. Thrice he denied him! (apostle Peter, story told by a storyteller in the flick from 2001 called A Knight's Tale) :)

    • @ArtBlade
      @ArtBlade 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I like it, too. See the example in my reply to Gideon :)

    • @conniedenhartog2804
      @conniedenhartog2804 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      In the speech (in Shakespeare) by Marcus Anthony about Julius Ceasar , there is something like this:
      Ambitious? I THRICE presented him a kingly crown, which he refused, was this ambitious?

    • @Janmification
      @Janmification 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Once, twice, thrice beats one time, two times, three times, every time. One time two time sounds cumbersome, wordy, and therefore excessive.

  • @michaelbayer5094
    @michaelbayer5094 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +54

    I'm a 58 yr old native speaker. I've used litotes my whole life, but never heard the word "litotes" before this video. Thanks.

    • @Wellimanewguy
      @Wellimanewguy 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Same. I've not gone far in life without good use of some proper litotes. Never heard the word in my life.

    • @BS-vx8dg
      @BS-vx8dg 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I learned the word "litotes" about 40 or so years ago when I was looking for the _opposite_ of "hyperbole". Well, litotes is _not_ really an exact opposite, but it _is_ an invaluable part of speaking English.

  • @mattwatson3407
    @mattwatson3407 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    Not a terrible way to spend 10 minutes. I enjoyed that.

  • @raffaellabarbierato8854
    @raffaellabarbierato8854 ปีที่แล้ว +103

    I have to admit that this class wasn't a total loss: litotes can be pretty tricky, but it's not my first rodeo and I won't be mean about handling this topic. Thanks as always!

    • @cattubuttas4749
      @cattubuttas4749 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I commonly use it in my native language but translating to (or thinking in) English I should know exactly the more appropriate words which is very unlikely unless I didn't learn it as an idiom.

    • @LeonardoOliveira-sq7sd
      @LeonardoOliveira-sq7sd 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I couldn't say that I totally disagree with you.

  • @seankayll9017
    @seankayll9017 ปีที่แล้ว +37

    "A tad peckish" is what I came up with. I remember when teaching, one of my class arrived having walked to school through a downpour. He walked in and said "It's a tad moist out there" which I thought was rather witty for a 12/13 year old. (ed. Don't know why I am watching this as I am a native Brit. Never knew ironic understatement was "litotes" though).

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +17

      Your story was more than a tad interesting

    • @nagichampa9866
      @nagichampa9866 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      A tad peckish sounds very British to me, even more so than "perhaps"!

    • @jasonm9264-f2o
      @jasonm9264-f2o 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Same! 48 year old native English speaker- most of the way through the video and I'm wondering why I'm getting entertainment out of this. :D

    • @stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369
      @stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@nagichampa9866 perchance

  • @suzannecarter445
    @suzannecarter445 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    I loved this! I never learned the word "litotes". The truly brilliant high school student from China living with me has recently started doing this on his own which indicated to me that he was advancing quite well with his English after only 2 1/2 years!

  • @ИринаХегай-о5й
    @ИринаХегай-о5й 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

    It wasn't a waste of time at all! Most of the expressions are far from useless and I watched the video not without pleasure. Thank you Gideon ❤

    • @dmendez4741
      @dmendez4741 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Not useless, but definitely British English focused not English in general

  • @DefekacjaOdbyta
    @DefekacjaOdbyta ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Not too shabby at all, kept me far from bored.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I'm not displeased with your comment

    • @thegrumpydinosaur162
      @thegrumpydinosaur162 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@LetThemTalkTV SIR THE SHIP HAS STRUCK A BERG!

  • @JuanHugeJanus
    @JuanHugeJanus ปีที่แล้ว +26

    I'm from Jutland in Denmark, I have never heard about this way of speaking before 🙂
    Google:
    "In Danish, understatements using litotes are seen as characteristic of the Jutlandic dialect. A stereotypical example is the phrase det er ikke så ringe endda ('it is not even so bad'), which is used to mean 'that's great'."

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +11

      not-half Interesting

    • @-303-
      @-303- 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I used to hear that all the time when I lived a couple years in the Copenhagen/København area, so maybe that isn't just jyske?

    • @starfishsystems
      @starfishsystems 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I haven't studied Danish at all, but from my time living in Sweden I got the impression that the subjunctive tense could be used to signal wistfulness or irony.
      So in Swedish I think you could say "Det var inte så svårt" rather than the expected "Det är inte så svårt" to set up a mood similar to litotes.
      I could be very wrong about all of this, and it may have no bearing on Danish at all. My background is computational linguistics, and we're very much prescriptivists, so I very much WANT to look for rules such as these, even when they might not be found.

    • @holger_p
      @holger_p 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      But now, I don't know, if you really don't speak this way, or just made a joke. That's why I dislike this way of speaking, at least in some situations.
      You need to be very familiar with the person you are talking to, to have an idea how they get it.
      Maybe that's why it's more used in spoken, when in written language.

    • @JuanHugeJanus
      @JuanHugeJanus 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@holger_p I'm always responsible for my interpretation, so I choose the "positive" but am giving you right it's sometimes very difficult to know what is meant in written language

  • @jonathanjacobson7012
    @jonathanjacobson7012 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I wouldn't mind watching more videos like this one.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +11

      You won't be disappointed with the ones coming up. They're not half bad

  • @annabarc1177
    @annabarc1177 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    Not bad lesson at all! It's not everyday that we can find such a brilliant teacher. I'm not averse to learning something new from you soon! Warm greetings from Poland!

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +13

      I wouldn't be in the least dismayed it you watched my other upcoming videos.

    • @badroulamine3212
      @badroulamine3212 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I think you've used some examples of litotes in your comment. Bravo 🎉

    • @oswaldocaminos8431
      @oswaldocaminos8431 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@LetThemTalkTVGreetings from the underground; thanks a lot for your insightful lessons.

  • @evelina2363
    @evelina2363 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I feel litotes express perfectly the British character. They sure exist in my language (Italian) but aren’t used quite as often as in English.

  • @HeckfishMusic
    @HeckfishMusic 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    Now, that video wasn't half bad. I'm no stranger to English and I rarely struggle with comprehending litotes, but actually using them is not exactly an easy feat. Saying it took me a good half an hour to come up with the previous sentence would hardly be an exaggeration.
    In Russian, my favourite litote is недурственно (ne'durstvenno) - an exaggerated form of недурно (nedurno) - "not bad", "not too ugly", which is very high praise.

    • @amatista65
      @amatista65 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      That wasn't shabby at all, but no reply? I dare not think it is because you are Russian. Come on, don't be bad sports! Is it not the nation of Tolstoi, Chechov and Pushkin? I, for one have more than a passing admiration for the many geniuses of your country!

    • @dariazhempalukh
      @dariazhempalukh 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Borrowing недурственно from your volcab fam, thank you

    • @HeckfishMusic
      @HeckfishMusic 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@amatista65 Thanks for your support! Also, kudos for mentioning Pushkin, I was under the impression he was less than well-known outside the Russian-speaking world.

    • @s589xjc9
      @s589xjc9 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Allow me to give one more example of a Russian litotes, a modern one. If something is really good/excellent, we use the epithet "годный", which roughly means "it will do", "it's tolerable", "you could use it (without much disgust)".

  • @Santoshlv426
    @Santoshlv426 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    My use of Litotes is less than sporadic and Gideon's erudition of this aspect of English has not fallen on deaf ears. I'm sure we covered this topic in high school. Most people use Litotes unconsciously so as to ameliorate what could be perceived as a "harsh" or "firm" statement, similar to speak excessively in platitudes (which I hate !!!). Cannot stand platitudes. Thanks for another excellent video Gideon.

  • @EH23831
    @EH23831 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    I would point out that this is less common somewhere like North America… Brits and Aussies use understatement and irony a lot more 😊

    • @erinm9445
      @erinm9445 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Yes! Was looking for this quote. As an American I agree with this. We do absolutely use litotes, but less often, and I think our examples are less artful than the ones given here. Americans just aren't as big on (therefore aren't as good at) wordplay as the Brits. But I think part of why Brits are so good at this is precisely because being direct and saying what they mean seems to be an enormous faux pas. Like Brits would rather perish than just tell someone they either really liked or really didn't like something! But it makes their langauge so much more interesting than ours.

  • @breatharian2009
    @breatharian2009 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    As a linguistic teacher, your usefulness is not a flash in the pan. Kol ha-kavod Gideon!

    • @Gideon01
      @Gideon01 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Gideon's lessons are far from boring. I'm not sure why you'd write to him in Klingon, though.

    • @alexanderbarsukov1796
      @alexanderbarsukov1796 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@Gideon01not the sharpest tool in the shed yourself, aren't you? 😂

    • @Gideon01
      @Gideon01 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@alexanderbarsukov1796 Why would you be so mean to me, tovarish?

    • @alexanderbarsukov1796
      @alexanderbarsukov1796 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Gideon01 why would you say dumb things about languages, mate?

    • @Gideon01
      @Gideon01 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@alexanderbarsukov1796 אלכסנדר ידידי, אתה צריך לפתח חוש הומור.

  • @Ankitasharma26
    @Ankitasharma26 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +22

    In Hindi (india) we often remark "ye itna bura bhi nahi hai waise" which means "it's not that bad after all" which actually means "its great" 😊

    • @MartinMaat
      @MartinMaat 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      't kon minder = (northern) Dutch for "it could be worse" = totally awesome!

    • @rfvtgbzhn
      @rfvtgbzhn 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      In German "nicht schlecht" ("not bad") also means great. I guess some of these phrases are very similar in many languages

    • @ferretyluv
      @ferretyluv 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Probably got that from the English.

    • @Ankitasharma26
      @Ankitasharma26 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@ferretyluv nopes. It is a very old phrase 😀

  • @cookymonstr7918
    @cookymonstr7918 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    This lesson again have brought me to the limits of my abilities and that did not left me disappointed at all!!! 😁

  • @samstromberg5593
    @samstromberg5593 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    As a side note - this is used much more in England than America. If you use it in American English, you'll still be understood, but will come across as being British
    Generally we say things a little more directly - "I really didn't want to wake up early" is more emphatic than "I didn't want to wake up early", rather than downplaying it to "less than keen"
    Downplaying is used almost exclusively when joking - if you go bowling with a friend and get a really good score and then they get better than you, some people will just come out and say "You're amazing, where'd you learn to bowl like that" or something but a lot of people will downplay their accomplishments as a joke - "I guess you're alright"
    Many people who are confident in their abilities but not arrogant will also use this to downplay their own skill to make others feel better - if I absolutely annihilate a friend's score, I might say "I have done this a time or two" or "I've had a bit of practice over the years"
    This is all in negative cases - you're unhappy about being beaten by a friend, or you're trying to make them feel better because they've been beaten by you
    If we're referring to good feelings (like the example of the meeting being cancelled) it's much more common. It's a pretty common occurrence that you'll hear that someone "isn't exactly devastated" about plans being cancelled

  • @DJ-wj7id
    @DJ-wj7id 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    It's not lost on me that these lessons aren't a bad thing at all. Can't appreciate this enough!

  • @kirnevo
    @kirnevo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I have found this video so important and not missing it even stop doing my job.

  • @niolani
    @niolani 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    "Not the brightest crayon in the box."
    Our version of it in French translate to: "Not the sharpest pencil in the box."
    In Quebec we also have this one that goes: "Not the most thawed corndog from the box."

    • @christianhusch1287
      @christianhusch1287 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      In German we say „Nicht die hellste Kerze auf der Torte“ (not the brightest candle on the cake)

    • @owlfethurz8377
      @owlfethurz8377 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Quebec's is the best I've heard! Eh?

  • @sterlingdafydd5834
    @sterlingdafydd5834 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

    In the American South when someone is not that bright….we just say”Bless his heart”

  • @rayzsome8852
    @rayzsome8852 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Not too shabby. In German we share the same concepts but I never yet heard the word "litotes". I think litotes are one of the spots in the world where English and German humor meet.

  • @vjc2270
    @vjc2270 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Brilliant. At least 80% of Australian English is litotes. Pretty much every statement is issued with a qualifier, e.g. “It’s not far” [less than a 5-hour drive]; “It’s not bad” [It’s good]; “I’m not feeling too good” [I’m dying]; “It’s not cold today.” [It’s 40 degrees Celsius in the shade]; “You’re not wrong” [You are 100% correct]; etc.

  • @manjirabanerjee7169
    @manjirabanerjee7169 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Couldn't do without literary devices Sir G. -- litotes, simile,metaphor, euphemism, pun,irony and so on Couldn't thank you enough 🙏

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      More literary devices coming soon. Thanks

    • @manjirabanerjee7169
      @manjirabanerjee7169 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@LetThemTalkTV Nothing like it Sir G.

  • @beatriced4431
    @beatriced4431 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    In germany it's not different. For example we also say "nicht schlecht" "not bad" or to food "kann man essen" "you can eat it" and thats a compliment. But of course, english and german are so simular, so it's not surprising at all.

  • @MrAllright2
    @MrAllright2 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    It's not really the sort of video I wouldn't show to my students. But I must say that I also love the English expressions that use images, some of them being very graphic, like "He's as thick as a brick", "let's call a spade a spade", "that takes the bicuit", and so many more.

  • @badroulamine3212
    @badroulamine3212 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Many thanks, dear teacher. Here's an example by the late Christopher Hitchens, when he was asked a provoking question by a member of an audience: "would that the question was as clever as it sounds".

    • @easterlinear
      @easterlinear 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I doubt he said that. Hitch wasn’t a complete illiterate…

  • @juanfran579
    @juanfran579 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I have never heard of litotes but I did know of understatement as a means of expressing ideas in a more subtle way.

  • @marianaesquivel2862
    @marianaesquivel2862 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    We use litotes all the time in my country, for instance we say; Do you live in a tent? when someone enters into a room and they don't close the door; or Did you eat glass today? when someone stands in front of the Tv and they don't let you watch it. She doesn't have all the candy in the bag (she is a bit stupid) and so on...by the way I live in Argentina and I love your videos!!!

  • @s589xjc9
    @s589xjc9 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Once I read an essay about British humour. It gave an example of a British-style advertisement (contrasting it to American ads which tend to describe the product in superlative degrees):
    "Try the ... Juice. Many don't like it. You may become an exception".
    Litotes seems to be a handy instrument for deadpan humour.

  • @bkwrmgl
    @bkwrmgl ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Not bad at all, Sir! Btw, in Modern Greek we use the term σχήμα λιτότητας (skhíma litótitas), lit. "figure of litotes".

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Good to get a comment from a Greek speaker. I hope my pronunciation wasn't too bad.

    • @bkwrmgl
      @bkwrmgl ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@LetThemTalkTV 😄 In classical times, λιτότης was pronounced /li'totε:s/, and later on /li'totis/. In Modern Greek it's λιτότητα, pronounced /li'totita/.

    • @goddessfreya13
      @goddessfreya13 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I know a Greek who says "I don't prefer it" (δεν το προτιμώ) a lot. It's a typical Greek way of saying you don't like something, I think? (I am learning Greek, am Norwegian, and we are no strangers to the use of litotes either).

    • @bkwrmgl
      @bkwrmgl 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@goddessfreya13 Νομίζω ότι δεν είναι καθόλου σπάνιο :)

    • @goddessfreya13
      @goddessfreya13 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@bkwrmgl 😄 Not uncommon, then!

  • @mvsan6
    @mvsan6 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Learning litotes is no mean feat ...it´s tricky but useful...Thank you Mr. Gideon !

  • @adalbertus777
    @adalbertus777 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    I won't disagree with Gideon that litotes can add bit of flavour to our words. But wouldn't be surprised at all if he was less than keen to show off his full potential here.

  • @pedropabloguijarrogarcia2575
    @pedropabloguijarrogarcia2575 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    This lesson was bordering the perfection.

    • @EH23831
      @EH23831 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Bordering ON perfection 😊

    • @pedropabloguijarrogarcia2575
      @pedropabloguijarrogarcia2575 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      This f***** English!!!. Always the same problem with preposiions on , in, at, over and many more. Thank you .

  • @linpires
    @linpires 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    "Not my cup of tea" I loved to learn that!

  • @Leoinderferne
    @Leoinderferne 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    In Berlin, where I grew up, a common expression is "Da kannste nich meckan", Can't Complain.
    It shows the constant inherent dissatisfaction of the Berliner with everything and anything around them.

  • @dmkor8553
    @dmkor8553 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Not too bad. The lesson was far from being usless. The art of understatement is a very English peculiar. Thanks

  • @sciavash
    @sciavash 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Such a useful point! We are already familiar with this usage. For example "to be not dissimilar to sth". I mean to say, I learnt to use dissimilar in this fixed expression only most of the time, which sort of shows the usage you have been talking about.

  • @martinlaino7136
    @martinlaino7136 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Gideon, my man! You´re the GOAT of English teaching! Excellent video!

  • @mirzatz126
    @mirzatz126 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Litotes - really interesting addition! I often share new words( new for me😊) and phrases with my learners in grade 8 and we all love it! Because it’s my cup of tea.

  • @rapramix
    @rapramix 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I really love litotes, I use it in my native language ( Hebrew), a lot. Especially when I give compliments to my mom hehe.

  • @h.s.levine2932
    @h.s.levine2932 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    As an American I’d just like to say that there are many of my fellow Americans that will ask "What language was he speaking?"

    • @michaelduffy6874
      @michaelduffy6874 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I'm told "peckish", meaning a little bit hungry, is not in AE.

    • @dmendez4741
      @dmendez4741 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I would've said famished maybe, but yeah, peckish? Sounds very Oliver Twist

    • @The_Hasty_Ent
      @The_Hasty_Ent 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      In Australia the old school expression is hungry enough to eat the crotch out of a low flying duck

    • @algaeninja6806
      @algaeninja6806 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Stop being a pickme

  • @pauljmorton
    @pauljmorton 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    One pretty common litotes expression in Finnish is "to not respect something a lot" which means "to strongly condemn/dislike something". I guess a fitting English equivalent would be "to not really care for something".

  • @amerikawoche8243
    @amerikawoche8243 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Mimi is an English Shorthair from Berlin, and we usually enjoy watching bird feeder videos together, but your current one proved quite captivating to her. "Not too tabby" she said. I agree.

  • @Frodojack
    @Frodojack 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    In the American South you will sometimes hear "Well, bless your heart" by middle-aged women who are restraining their desire to throw curses at someone who annoys them.

  • @dudablack2426
    @dudablack2426 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great class! I didn't know Litotes existed! learned a lot today :)

  • @iainmc9859
    @iainmc9859 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    My favourite litotes , or maybe its just ironic sarcasm, is very Scottish. 'Aye, did yea', meaning 'You are full of BS'. The more someone continues to extend the dramatically unbelievable , the more the phrase is repeated as the singular response, usually with a tilt of the head and a further inflection of one of the three words.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Yes, that's a good example. The one I can think of that is quite similar is "yer don't say" that you hear a lot in old American movies.

    • @iainmc9859
      @iainmc9859 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I don't remember anyone subsequently being smashed over the heid with a bottle of Buckfast in any old American movies though 🤨 @@LetThemTalkTV

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Saturday night on the tiles in Glasgow, ahh it takes me back.

  • @Lalo-ip8ro
    @Lalo-ip8ro 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    This lesson wasn't that dull I suppose. In fact, I mightn't fail to remember litotes in my next conversation :)

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      It wouldn't be a waste of effort.

  • @sailorVenus225
    @sailorVenus225 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My brother literally only speaks/mostly writes in litotes. I'm always in awe, it's so interesting to read his messages :p In like every sentence. I can't grasp it.

  • @kznsq77
    @kznsq77 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thanks, the lesson was not bad! I can't say that I didn't know about this topic, but this term was new to me.

  • @stellagrau8871
    @stellagrau8871 10 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Thanks Gideon

  • @pwolkowicki
    @pwolkowicki 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I think that litotes are very specific to British English. It reminds me of a sketch on TV when a woman spoke to an unhappy man:"You are not entirely happy, are you?"

  • @sebastianzelechowski8557
    @sebastianzelechowski8557 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks a lot dear Gideon, as usual, your videos did not left me without useful knowledge. Have a good day🙏

  • @pamelajaye
    @pamelajaye 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I'm going to have to adjust the algorithm. TH-cam suggested this video to me. English is my first language. I was working on Polish. And I am very very far from this. In Polish.

  • @giuseppescrima6330
    @giuseppescrima6330 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Hi Gideon. In Italian we use litotes very often to be fun, less rude and sometimes pungently and it's a very interesting way of speaking.Thank you so much for your useful and interesting lesson. To say that all your lessons are never trivial is an understatement. Could you please tell me if these two sentences have the same meaning? 1) To say he is stupid is an understatement. 2) To say he is stupid is an euphemism. I'm asking because in Italian we say: "Dire che è stupido è un eufemismo." Thank you in advance.

  • @shaneemanuelle6243
    @shaneemanuelle6243 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    I should say that in my experience these kind of expressions - litotes, I learnt something today - are not as commonly used in the USA as they are in Commonwealth countries. I was surprised, having come from Australia and moving to the USA at age 29, that In general Americans don’t seem to use, and often don’t even get, these kind of nuances and expressions

    • @krisrowan
      @krisrowan ปีที่แล้ว +3

      They do this in the southern states. If food is good, they say that well, that didn't suck. This area tends not to be effusive with praise but want to express that they liked it in sort of a sarcastic way.

    • @litigioussociety4249
      @litigioussociety4249 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I'm American, everything he said in the video are phrases occasionally heard in media in America. I can't imagine they wouldn't get it. Your usage of them may have made you sound weird, if you were using sentences and phrases that no American would say. That's probably going to be true anytime you are in a significantly different dialect region. An example of a regional phrase others wouldn't know would be "how much you like" in the Southern states, and Northerners would never understand it means "how much longer will you be," or "how much do you have left?"
      Australia has a lot of localized phrases that no one outside of Australia uses, and Australian media rarely is distributed internationally, so it's more likely for an Australian to run into that problem.

    • @shaneemanuelle6243
      @shaneemanuelle6243 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@litigioussociety4249 point taken. Yes, there are quite some differences; things I didn’t understand at first. I was first in Kentucky and found there to be much richer in language than where I am now, in Michigan.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I'm not averse to hearing about it from an American perspective

    • @ronald3836
      @ronald3836 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@krisrowan in good Dutch: "het eten was goed binnen te houden", i.e. "the food was easy to keep down".

  • @ericwillis777
    @ericwillis777 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    British always say in answer to "how are you" - "Not too bad" - in the US they say "Great" or some other positve. I guess the implication in Britain is that it is always bad, so if it's not too bad, it's good !

  • @miodragpopovic3301
    @miodragpopovic3301 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hi Gideon, many tks for the video that I've found very, very effective. Have a nice the rest of the day. I look fwd to seeing you soon.

  • @naseermak4357
    @naseermak4357 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Sir, I have a big confusion in participle clauses. Please make a video on participle clauses.

  • @AnnaAnna-uc2ff
    @AnnaAnna-uc2ff 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Thank you.

  • @Pepijn_a.k.a._Akikaze
    @Pepijn_a.k.a._Akikaze 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    I wouldn't be upset if you taught us more of these not uncommon expressions.

  • @Twisted_Logic
    @Twisted_Logic 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    7:00 If you want to go full "native speaker", you could also intentionally combine the two in a way that doesn't make logical sense for comedic effect (i.e. "it's not rocket surgery").

  • @isabelatence7035
    @isabelatence7035 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Today I studied this way of communicating, being more spicy in my observations, getting out of the normal way, I didn't know "litotes" I'm going to use it... I'll follow your advice, 2024 is going to be exciting💥

  • @hatienchu7233
    @hatienchu7233 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I don't particularly like litotes because I often think a lot longer than usual to find a good usage which fits a situation but I started adopting it. To be fair, it makes me sound less illiterate and uncivilized.

  • @user-cc2ux9ew1r
    @user-cc2ux9ew1r ปีที่แล้ว

    Gideon, greetimg from Essaouira where I am spending a couple days before heading off back to Casablanca.

  • @balthazarbeutelwolf9097
    @balthazarbeutelwolf9097 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    In the "extremely hungry" example, I paused the video and before I heard your choice I conjured up the phrase "just a tad peckish", which superficially changes the meaning of the sentence [no negation], but context indicates that if anything it strengthens the statement via irony. But does this still count as "litotes"?

  • @tondrej
    @tondrej 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Here's my attempt at one I feel is a bit more subtle, an understatement without negation, what do you think of it?
    Henry had been hiking for 3 days without even a snack and when he finally reached the town he found himself inclined to consider looking for rerplenishment.

  • @SrThanatos010
    @SrThanatos010 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I dared my friend ChatGPT like this "It wouldn't be incorrect to say that I'm curious about litotes, double negatives, and linguistic recursion. I challenge you, using a sentence that is not impossible to understand, you create a sentence with recursion, litotes and double negative."
    And he replied: "Challenge accepted! Here is a sentence that incorporates recursion, litotes, and double negatives: "It is not uncommon to find someone who is not above saying that they are not disinterested in avoiding complexities in language."
    It was quite challenging to understand, but I think he meant "It's common to find someone who says they are interested in avoiding complexities in language".

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Your friend will get you into trouble.

  • @5ll3x
    @5ll3x 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Brilliant!

  • @ConradSpoke
    @ConradSpoke 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    "Outstanding, Pig! Absolutely outstanding!"

  • @happyelephant5384
    @happyelephant5384 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    - Are you a robot?
    - I am not too far from using litotes.

  • @danielrichwine2268
    @danielrichwine2268 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This technique changes the emphasis. If you say that's very good, the emphasis is that the baseline is bad and you have surpassed that. On the other hand, if you say that's not bad at all, the emphasis is really on perfection. You did not achieve perfection, but it was not bad considering the standard was perfection.

  • @pangoroo
    @pangoroo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I had a friend who was a gruff old marine, he used to say “he won’t like that so pretty good” or some variation of it.

  • @Kyragos
    @Kyragos ปีที่แล้ว

    French speaker here. Litotes are hardly unusual in my language, so I don't have trouble with these. I don't hate using such figures of speech.

  • @nagichampa9866
    @nagichampa9866 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I can't be sure if the lesson is not terrible, but I am quite confident I could say it was not useless at all!

  • @FelixGerardo
    @FelixGerardo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Hello there. I'm from Mexico. Every now and then I considered my command of English to be not too bad at all and then am I reminded of a colonoscopy when I come across advance british native speakers 😮

  • @jimrennison1
    @jimrennison1 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    She sure wasn't the brightest bulb in the marquee but then she wasn't too hard on the eyes, either😅

  • @hglundahl
    @hglundahl 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    4:03 "... I wasn't totally displeased" / "... I didn't quite shit in my pants" / "... I didn't die of shock" ...

  • @nataliep5584
    @nataliep5584 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    i have to tell you-this video was not too boring at all!

  • @Wiled-r2h
    @Wiled-r2h 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I really enjoyed this video, but I have one comment to make. It seems to me that figures of speech (including litotes and many others) are something that a person may or may not be proficient in and comfortable with even in their *native* language. (Although using them in one's second language may present its own, additional challenges; and it's also true that each language has its idiosyncrasies when it comes to figures of speech.)

  • @ronald3836
    @ronald3836 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    ChatGPT: "I might not be absent forever."

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      you get chatGPT to write your comments?

    • @ronald3836
      @ronald3836 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@LetThemTalkTV Just this one! I asked it to say "I'll be back" using litotes.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ahh! got it. You got a robot to write the line for a robot.

    • @ronald3836
      @ronald3836 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@LetThemTalkTV Robots are no stranger to litotes anymore!

  • @ekketomozin2810
    @ekketomozin2810 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Not too shabby. "Do you any favours", meaning benefit, or improve is used this way a lot. He was due to give an adress to the convention, but getting trolleyed[drunk] on the mini bar had done his clarity of mind no favours"😮

  • @peterzavon3012
    @peterzavon3012 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    As a native English speaker, I try very hard to avoid litotes, especially when speaking with non-intimate friends or people whom I know are not native English speakers, regardless of their proficiently.

    • @starfishsystems
      @starfishsystems 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I wouldn't stress too much about it. This seems to be an extremely common mode of casual speech in many languages.
      To give one small example, it's very common in Québec to say "pas pire" either as a backhanded compliment or as a grudging concession of some achievement.
      The phase "pas pire" [not worse] is dialectical Joual, not grammatical French. Properly one would say "pas mal" or "pas mauvais" and everyone understands this practice of grammatical regularity. So breaking with it is perhaps slightly outrageous. Thus it's perfect for setting up irony or sarcasm, and for giving a backhanded compliment into the bargain.
      I've encountered similar forms in Swedish, Russian, and German, but I won't offer examples as I'm not fluent enough in those languages to do them justice. My point is really that this seems to be something we humans tend to do fairly universally. Don't be afraid of it. Language is meant to be playful. It's how children learn, after all.

    • @peterzavon3012
      @peterzavon3012 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@starfishsystems Yes, but moving between languages makes understanding specific instances of these forms rather difficult.

    • @magmalin
      @magmalin 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@starfishsystems I agree. Although I had never heard the term "litotes" for theses expressions before, there are a lot of them in German and in other languages, too of course
      Here are just a few German examples that are used very often in every day speech: "nicht schlecht"= not bad; "da sag ich nicht nein" or "da bin ich nicht abgeneigt" = you mean yes; "das ist nicht gerade die feine Art" = when someone is behaving rudely; "das ist keine Wissenschaft" = it's easy to do/make; "er/sie hat die Weisheit nicht mit der Muttermilch aufgesogen" or "er/sie hat die Weisheit nicht mit dem Löffel gefressen" = talking about a stupid person; "mein Verständnis hält sich in Grenzen" = you don't have any sympathy/understanding at all for a certain behaviour/deed.

    • @HarryHaller1963
      @HarryHaller1963 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I agree with you--with people who don't know you well, or at least somewhat, irony and sarcasm can lead to misunderstandings. What I do, if I'm using these kinds of expressions with people who haven't known me very long, is use tone of voice and facial expression to indicate that I'm being ironic or sarcastic or...litotistical?

  • @gianlucac.8944
    @gianlucac.8944 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    You didn't do half a bad job here, Gideon!

    • @gianlucac.8944
      @gianlucac.8944 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Taking on this subject was no walk in the park but it wasn't short on potential rewards either

  • @skafiend4319
    @skafiend4319 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Your manner of teaching doesn't seem unappealing to me. Keep it up :)

  • @morygeg
    @morygeg 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I tried applying this directive to my LLM assistant and it certainly didn't make him sound less human.

  • @thomasfahey8763
    @thomasfahey8763 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This is the kind of thing I live for. I say that without a trace of irony. I'm unable to be ironic in print.

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Understated irony is somewhat underrated

  • @hellofromdavid
    @hellofromdavid 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I wasn't unimpressed by your presentation. And I wouldn't object to experiencing another one.

  • @ruthmiale1239
    @ruthmiale1239 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    He’d been hiking for three days without even a snack. When he finally reached the town it was as if he’d forgotten how to be hungry.

  • @MrLiviooo
    @MrLiviooo 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Call the man over two meter’s Arnie instead of Arnold…😂,but excellent video,thank you so much for posting this gem!

  • @bleepbloop6234
    @bleepbloop6234 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    5:32 I'm not oblivious to what you did there.

  • @keithdavies52
    @keithdavies52 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I was walking 3 days without any grub. By time I got to town, I was thinking I might be able to use a bite.

  • @mcguinnessus
    @mcguinnessus ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Well, that wasn't the worst use of my time!
    I feel like litotes suggests a prior expectation (or concern) to the contrary. "The arugula and peanut butter sandwich wasn't half bad" is saying you were worried it was going to be awful. But I would be careful about using it in very serious situations: nobody wants to hear a brain surgeon, when asked how the life-saving operation went, say "not half bad! I could have done worse!"

    • @LetThemTalkTV
      @LetThemTalkTV  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      We should judge our brain surgeons on their medical prowess and not on their use or ironic understament

    • @Imstarshine
      @Imstarshine 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      [use of ironic understatement]

  • @παυροεπής
    @παυροεπής 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Good English litotes assist your understanding in the French sense as it allows you to tell double Dutch but certainly not that frank:)

  • @mbenoit77
    @mbenoit77 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    "I'll be back"...
    "Well, I won't be a stranger"

  • @elikafarshchi2584
    @elikafarshchi2584 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I wasn't surprised cause psychologically speaking, using these litotes/idioms and expressions wouldn't harm anyone :))))

    • @holger_p
      @holger_p 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Sure, they can add confusion and an extra effort, by resolving their original meaning. Saying "don't shrink" instead of grow, is harder to realize.

  • @stephaneg.8142
    @stephaneg.8142 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Another way to increase his knowledge and be more subtle is to say something indirectly by using the definition of a word instead of it.
    'i think that person always prioritises his own interests in any kind of situation.= He's egoist.
    'as usual he didn't show us his courage in this simple conflict'=he's a coward