'She's not the most intelligent person in the world!'
Understatement is used when a speaker wants to a make a situation seem less strong or important than it is.
For example, think about this situation:
You have taken ten exams in school and passed them all with a score of 100%. Someone asks you:
'How did you do on your test?'
You answer:
'I did OK.'
This is understatement. We can also call this modesty.
It would not be understatement to say:
'I did fantastic! I had the best result! I’m wonderful!'
We would call this a boast.
In spoken English we use understatement when we want to be tactful.
For example take a look at Bob…
How would you describe him? It’s not polite to call him 'fat'.
Here we can use 'understatement' to be polite.
Take a look at these set of expressions. All of these are ways we would use understatement to describe Bob.
We can use these expressions to describe a variety of places, people and things:
London is expensive: 'London is not the cheapest place in the world'
Her new husband is old: 'He's a little on the old side'.
The food is terrible: 'I wouldn't say it tasted great'.
Modesty (noun): when someone does not talk about their good abilities and achievements. Positive meaning.
Boast (Verb/noun): when someone talks too proudly about their abilities or achievements. Negative meaning.
Tactful (adjective): careful not to say or do anything that could upset someone
Now think of some understatement sentences and add them to the 'Add new comment' below.
