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

This is what you should be using if you want to sound like an advanced speaker of English and not a robot. You'll learn common English expressions and lot more about litotes.

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#litotes

[martinvoet]

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]

"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.

[mattwatson]

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

[michaelbayer]

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.

[raffaellabarbierato]

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!

[seankayll]

"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).

[suzannecarter]

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-ой]

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 ❤

[DefekacjaOdbyta]

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

[HeckfishMusic]

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.

[jonathanjacobson]

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

[breatharian]

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

[annabarc]

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!

[JuanHugeJanus]

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'."

[Santoshlv]

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.

[EH]

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

[Ankitasharma]

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" 😊

[cookymonstr]

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

[manjirabanerjee]

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

[beatriced]

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.