# Exaggeration v. understatement



## Jacobtm

So in the USA, and in my experience studying in México, I often hear over exaggerations as a normal part of speech. When someone says they saw the hottest girl ever, in reality they just saw a pretty girl. "That was the worst movie ever!" means that it was just a bad movie. The most boring class ever is a weekly occurrence. 

What cultures out there actually take superlatives seriously and reserve them for truly extraordinary occasions? Or are there countries/cultures out there where the opposite is true, where people frequently understate the gravity of situations as a normal way of communicating?


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## koniecswiata

If I understand correctly, your examples show understatement in the US and Mexico--instead of the hottest girl, a "just pretty" girl, etc...
Actually, I would have thought that Americans and Mexicans would be more prone to exaggeration.  Where I live (Chile), I would say there's a slight tendency to exaggeration--though not totally.  It's very common to hear things like "¡...es DEMASIADO bueno/rico!"  In fact "demasiado" is often just used to mean "very"--just a regular intensifier.


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## Jacobtm

Koni, I meant to say that when someone proclaims, "I just saw the hottest chick ever!" or "That movie was the worst movie ever!" that it really just means the girl was pretty and the movie was bad. People over-exaggerate quite a bit in the US, as far as I'm concerned, but no one really takes it seriously.


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## koniecswiata

OK, I understand.  Yes, that's what I'd imagine it would be.  I remember being once in England and everything was "brilliant!" when people liked something.  So, I guess that's exaggerating, too.  Besides, in England, due to the way they intonate when speaking everything tended to sound like a question, or basically "dramatic".  We Americans are a bit more monotone-sounding when we speak.


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## PABLO DE SOTO

Overexaggerating is a common way in Spain to express that something is very good, bad or that you have done something many times.
So you can hear very often "He visto esa película mil veces" "Te lo he dicho ya cien veces" ( I have seen that movie thousand times, I have told you that one hundred times) .
Obviously nobody believes that those numbers of times are real but everybody understands it means many times.

Other expressions as "That movie was the worst movie ever" or "That was the worst day my life" are also very common and everybody understands that they mean just a bad movie or a very bad day.


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## mirx

I would have thought that Americans were king on this, but if you say we have a bit of it going on in Mexico it might well be true. I read somewhere in these same forums that in X country when someone was being over-exagerated, a common thing to say was:"you are more dramatic than a Mexican soapopera".

I still think Americans do over-acclaim-complain-describe things.



> Vanilla Icecream?
> Yeah, totally. I love vanilla Icecream, it's definitely one of my favorites.


 


> Do you want to go to church with me this Sunday.
> Absolutely, I've always wanted to go to church on a Sunday!!!


 
I believe a big part of this has to do with certain extreme politeness, and some social rules that dictate you must agree as much as possible with whom your talking.


But then again all this typing might just be my Mexican overexageration on American customs.


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## ernest_

PABLO DE SOTO said:


> Overexaggerating is a common way in Spain to express that something is very good, bad or that you have done something many times.
> So you can hear very often "He visto esa película mil veces" "Te lo he dicho ya cien veces" ( I have seen that movie thousand times, I have told you that one hundred times) .
> Obviously nobody believes that those numbers of times are real but everybody understands it means many times.



I agree. Underexaggerating, on the other hand, is less common, but perfectly okay in certain circles. You can say, for example, "it's like a bit cold, no?" when it's freezing. However, I would advise to use with care.


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## Jacobtm

mirx said:


> I would have thought that Americans were king on this, but if you say we have a bit of it going on in Mexico it might well be true.



Mirx, I think your examples aren't quite the way that Americans overexagerate. 

And to me Mexicans overexagerate all the time, but in specific ways, for instance calling people overly affectionate names in completely normal circumstances.
"Mi cielo, pásame la salsita por favor."
"Mi corazon, ¿dónde está la sal?"
"Mi querido manolo, te mando muchos besos"


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## mirx

> Jacobtm
> Mirx, I think your examples aren't quite the way that Americans overexagerate.


 
Well, let's agree to disagree, those examples are quite a common format in the way the Americans I have met talk. 

The examples that you quoted however, are not even exagerations. Since when is it weird to call someone "honey" or "sweety" in normal circumstances. I hear it all the time. You might argue that is cheesy and tacky, and I agree on that but I definitely do not see them as sings of over exageration.


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## london calling

Us Brits are prone to understatement, which very often is not understood by the rest of the world (unless they've been in the UK for a while!).

There are many examples of British understatement. I remember my father saying this to me (years ago), as I walked out the front door with an American friend:

"You look nice tonight, dear!"

My friend was gobsmacked, as he said "I (quote) looked a million dollars(unquote)". I had to explain to him that that was my father's way of saying just that.

Stiff upper lip and all that!

And what about the famed (BBC News?) expression "a man is helping Police with their enquiries"? That could even mean that the man is the prime suspect!


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## Einstein

london calling said:


> And what about the famed (BBC News?) expression "a man is helping Police with their enquiries"? That could even mean that the man is the prime suspect!


I think this particular expression is simply respect for the principle of innocence until proven guilty. In Italy the media have no problem about calling someone a "terrorist" as soon as he's arrested.

A comment on the thread title: rather than "overexaggeration v. underexaggeration" I'd say "exaggeration v. understatement". But I know this section is not linguistic...


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## london calling

Einstein said:


> I think this particular expression is simply respect for the principle of innocence until proven guilty. I agree, but I still think it's often a very understated way of saying he's under investigation, a possible suspect,  etc. In Italy the media have no problem about calling someone a "terrorist" as soon as he's arrested. Yes, but they also say  "persona informata sui fatti" (literally, "person who knows the facts", for those of you who don't speak Italian), which I also think is rather ambiguous.
> 
> A comment on the thread title: rather than "overexaggeration v. underexaggeration" I'd say "exaggeration v. understatement". But I know this section is not linguistic...which is why I didn't say anything either!


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## Jacobtm

mirx said:


> Well, let's agree to disagree, those examples are quite a common format in the way the Americans I have met talk.
> 
> The examples that you quoted however, are not even exagerations. Since when is it weird to call someone "honey" or "sweety" in normal circumstances. I hear it all the time. You might argue that is cheesy and tacky, and I agree on that but I definitely do not see them as sings of over exageration.



Ha, to me it sounds weird to always use such affectionate terms, to always send kisses to people, to always have someone be the love of your life when you're not saying anything romantic. These words of course have a softer meaning in México than their literal translations do in English, still just seems intense when a female friend tells me 

"Te quiero mucho, besos a ti y tu novia"


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## london calling

koniecswiata said:


> OK, I understand. Yes, that's what I'd imagine it would be. I remember being once in England and everything was "brilliant!" when people liked something. So, I guess that's exaggerating, too. Besides, in England, due to the way they intonate when speaking everything tended to sound like a question, or basically "dramatic". We Americans are a bit more monotone-sounding when we speak.


Interesting!

As a Brit, I would have said the exact opposite (having been to the States on more than one occasion and having several American friends). My impression is that many Americans overdo it, they overreact (verbally) to the point where they seem insincere (which is very often not the case at all, I realise that, I'm not criticising), whereas in Britain we tend to understate everything, as overdoing it, overreacting is not considered "seemly".

I wouldn't have said you were more monotone than us when you speak, either, generally speaking.


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## mirx

Jacobtm said:


> Ha, to me it sounds weird to always use such affectionate terms, to always send kisses to people, to always have someone be the love of your life when you're not saying anything romantic. These words of course have a softer meaning in México than their literal translations do in English, still just seems intense when a female friend tells me
> 
> "Te quiero mucho, besos a ti y tu novia"


 
Well, it sounds affected to me too, but again it is more of a personal style than a culural thing, especially the "te quiero mucho" thing, sounds like a teenager said it, and not so much to your girlfriend but to you and you alone.

I hear _loves, honeys, sweetearts, darlings_ everyday coming from older women and directed at shop attendants, someone random on the street, a stranger on the bus, etc. I don't see this as an over exageration.


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## koniecswiata

Porbalby a lot of this has to do with personal perception and subjectivity.  I have noticed the British thing for understatement--but I've generally found it having to do more with a kind of ironic sense of humor.  Generally when speaking, I find British English to be "dramatic sounding" (for lack of a better term), with all the filler speech like "really?!" or "right" or "brilliant"...  I'd say the intonation of speech is definitely more "up and down" than the more common American monotone.
It may all have to do with keeping a polite public face, sounding interested, etc... I find this sort of attitude to also be typical of American behavior, as well as Latin American behavior.  This whole kind of "Let's do lunch sometime!" or "Qué bueno!" or "Brilliant!".  I find Central Europeans, on the other hand, to put on much less of this enthusiastic, friendly public face behavior than the Anglosphere or Latin American approach.  I'm not saying one is better or worse.


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## london calling

koniecswiata said:


> It may all have to do with keeping a polite public face, sounding interested, etc... I find this sort of attitude to also be typical of American behavior, as well as Latin American behavior. This whole kind of "Let's do lunch sometime!" or "Qué bueno!" or "Brilliant!". I find Central Europeans, on the other hand, to put on much less of this enthusiastic, friendly public face behavior than the Anglosphere or Latin American approach. I'm not saying one is better or worse.


Reading through all the various posts and having lived in southern Italy for the last (almost) 30 years, one thing I can say for sure, the southern Italians must be very like the Mexicans: they use very similar phrasing to the examples Jacobtm has given in Mexican Spanish and which, translated into English, sound riduculous, but in Italian they're perfectly normal and acceptable (as they are in Mexican, of course).

I'm not saying one is better or worse either.  Register is different in each language - that's the beauty of different cultures!


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## koniecswiata

"Honey, sugar, sweet pea, pumpkin, my little honey bee"--all terms of endearment in English.  Though, they may sound a little "tacky" to some of use, I suspect it's because we come from a more cosmopolitan subset of English speakers.  Head out into large parts of the US, and these terms are quite normal and unironic.  Take the interstate in California, and a bit farther away from the cities, the waitress will probably address you as "honey".  Also, our standard farwell at the end of friendly letters is "love" or "hugs and kisses".  In German, for example, it would be downright impossible to write something like "Mit liebe" at the end of a letter--even to your own mom.  I would say that English, at least American English, tends to use these terms pretty liberally.


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## mirx

Jacobtm said:


> "Mi cielo, pásame la salsita por favor."
> *Honey, pass me the salsa please.*
> "Mi corazon, ¿dónde está la sal?"
> *Sweetheart, where is the salt?*
> "Mi querido manolo, te mando muchos besos"
> *Kisses, dear Manolo.*


 


london calling said:


> they use very similar phrasing to the examples Jacobtm has given in Mexican Spanish and which, translated into English, sound riduculous,


 
In red are the transalations into English of the Spanish originals by Jacobtm. They do not sound ridiculous at all in English. What is more, they are indeed phrases that we hear everyday on TV, both the American and the English variants. Do we say them personally? Probably not, but they are far from being strange in an Anglo context.

Now, I am not saying -and have never said- that Mexicans don't exagerate, I am sure we do, but these examples in particular are equally aplicable to Anglo contexts. I seriously don't know of a European country where people don't use affectionate names to call their spouses or partners.


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## koniecswiata

mirx said:


> In red are the transalations into English of the Spanish originals by Jacobtm. They do not sound ridiculous at all in English. What is more, they are indeed phrases that we hear everyday on TV, both the American and the English variants. Do we say them personally? Probably not, but they are far from being strange in an Anglo context.
> 
> Now, I am not saying -and have never said- that Mexicans don't exagerate, I am sure we do, but these examples in particular are equally aplicable to Anglo contexts. I seriously don't know of a European country where people don't use affectionate names to call their spouses or partners.


 
Very true!  I couldn't agree more!  (Talk about exaggeration).  I might even add that some endearment terms in English (not used by everyone, but definitely present in the culture) could sound a bit "cursi" in Spanish:  Sugar pie, honey bunch, sweet pea.  Not to mention the "poopypoo" said to children when they have to do their "caquita".  And don't start saying there are no diminutives in English...


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## Macunaíma

In Brazil, if you say that a class was _the worst ever_, you're likely to be taken seriously and if someone disagrees they will remind you that this class or the other was even worse. Exaggerations as an expressive device are not nearly as common here as in the English-speaking world. Some expressions that strike me as rather exaggerated are incorporated into the language and, it seems, are not even acknowledged by native speakers as exaggerations any more. For example, one can read even in serious newspapers, in the economy section, about a country "_reeling from_ a recession". I'm always amused by the casuality with which the British use the adjective "appalling" and the adverb "absolutely" . I watch a British TV series on paid TV where a minor angry outburst was described as "mouth-foaming vitriol" in the last episode. The characters are always "flabbergasted", "shocked" or "disgusted" even at the most predictable of events .


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## sound shift

Macunaíma said:


> In Brazil, if you say that a class was _the worst ever_, you're likely to be taken seriously and if someone disagrees they will remind you that this class or the other was even worse. Exaggerations as an expressive device are not nearly as common here as in the English-speaking world. Some expressions that strike me as rather exaggerated are incorporated into the language and, it seems, are not even acknowledged by native speakers as exaggerations any more. For example, one can read even in serious newspapers, in the economy section, about a country "_reeling from_ a recession". I'm always amused by the casuality with which the British use the adjective "appalling" and the adverb "absolutely" . I watch a British TV series on paid TV where a minor angry outburst was described as "mouth-foaming vitriol" in the last episode. The characters are always "flabbergasted", "shocked" or "disgusted" even at the most predictable of events .


This rings true, but bear in mind that the media and the television stations have an interest in exaggerating. The general public tend to talk in more measured terms. None of my friends or neighbours ever uses terms as florid as "reeling" when talking about the recession.


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## london calling

mirx said:


> In red are the transalations into English of the Spanish originals by Jacobtm. They do not sound ridiculous at all in English. My apologies, I didn't explain myself properly, I meant that they sound ridiculous if you translate them literally (I understand Spanish, by the way), just as the literal translation of the Italian equivalents do. I'm not saying we don't use, "sweetie" or "love" or whatever, I'm saying we don't say "My heart" or "My heaven".
> Now, I am not saying -and have never said- that Mexicans don't exagerate, I am sure we do, but these examples in particular are equally aplicable to Anglo contexts. I seriously don't know of a European country where people don't use affectionate names to call their spouses or partners. See above - that's not what I meant, I agree with you.


 
@soundshift - very true. The TV makes my toes curl.... Get that for exaggeration!


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## ireney

Moderator's note: Unfortunately the vast majority of this thread consists of exclusively personal opinions. Since this is against the rules of the Cultural Discussions' forum, I have to close this thread.


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