This kind of semantic sarcasm is actually very typical especially for British English. For example "fat chance" and "thin chance" mean "low chance". "Interesting" means boring in certain intonations. "Great" can mean terrible, "sure" can mean no, "lovely" dreadful, "nice" awful.
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Replying to @o_guest @sakamping and
We don't really this in Greek as a standard. It's obviously possible but in no way a typical way of talking.
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Replying to @o_guest @sakamping and
Oh, and one Americans get really confused by: "Clever" can mean really un-clever.
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Replying to @o_guest @sakamping and
I like to think I'm careful with these with non-native people who just moved to UK but it's really hard sometimes. I do try and explicitly explain it to them as well as how tricky phrasal verbs are. "Pop in", "carry away", "sort out"...
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Replying to @o_guest @sakamping and
There's a lot of high frequency verbs and expressions that you don't learn growing up internationally. It took me a while to adapt myself.
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Replying to @o_guest @sakamping and
A really important one in UK is never sign an email with "regards" unless the recipient pissed you off. Them's fighting words.
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Interesting — had no idea. Is “best regards” different?
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Yes, "best" "kind" etc make it polite.
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@blahah404 probably can think of more examples.
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so many good examples already. Pretty much anything meaning good can mean bad when said with a falling intonation... perfect, brilliant, wonderful, "oh good" - all can mean "this is terrible" with the implied sense that we're all resigned to being disappointed constantly2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
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