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There are a few others. “Quite” comes to mind — “I am quite hungry” or “that meal was quite good” can mean opposite things, depending on the speaker region and
by jwatzman 3mo ago
There are a few others. “Quite” comes to mind — “I am quite hungry” or “that meal was quite good” can mean opposite things, depending on the speaker region and even voice inflexion if spoken.
- MrJohz 3mo agoOnce you start going in that direction, a lot of things that British people say can require some amount of translation, see e.g. this table: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/0*0Fs1wDk_nbgajEZU.png https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/0*0Fs1...
- seszett 3mo agoHonestly it's not the first time I read such comments, and... they're not about the British as much as they are about the Americans, I'd say. I think almost all of the expressions in the left-hand side have direct, almost literal equivalents in French for example, with the same meaning as they have for the British, including being very context-dependent. Also works for Flemish by the way, although the Dutch are supposed to be more literal so maybe Flemish/Dutch is to be seen the same way as British/American.
- dofm 3mo agoQuite, indeed, has no simple meaning in British English. Any non-British attempt to assign one meaning that is different to their regional meaning is doomed to failure :-) I use it in different senses all the time.