Under- and overstatement | Style | Grammar Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians hello David hello
Rosie today we're going to talk about
understatement and overstatement I could
not be more excited this is like the
coolest thing that's happened to me all
week oh my gosh really no I mean I'm
excited this is a really interesting
topic but I was deliberately overstating
yeah I mean it's pretty cold but that is
that does is that is a perfect example
David of what overstatement is so we're
going to look at a couple examples of
what writers will do sometimes two I
would say both understand an
overstatement really help to drive a
point home we're going to start with
understatement so David you want to read
this sentence sure so you kidnapped my
dog drove to New Orleans without telling
anyone and ate the last cookie that I
was saving yeah I am like vaguely
unhappy this is a horrible thing that
just happened so when you said yeah I'm
like vaguely unhappy after this huge
list of horrible things that the
supposed friend has done you know it's
clear that that you are more than just a
little vaguely unhappy to be clear
grammarians rosie did not do any of
these things
thank you David is it a sentence is a
work of fiction thank you for letting me
off the hook there cool so what we're
trying to express in the sentence is
that this is something that should make
the speaker or the writer quite unhappy
but what we're doing here is
deliberately understating the case to
further drive home the point that this
is actually quite serious exactly so
ironically while the writer is using
minimizing language saying I am vaguely
unhappy or like vaguely unhappy which
serves to further qualify that statement
the fact that they're saying that after
such a litany of sins like cookie even
that should all really serve to drive
home the opposite effect
so this
a textbook example of understatement all
right so we've seen an example of
understatement let's take a look at what
an overstatement might look like my life
is over
I got a D on the midterm I am dead I am
literally a skeleton oh wow so this is a
great a great example of overstatement
so we know this isn't true right I'm a
daddy on your midterm not great but is
it truly and actually the end of
someone's life no and this author this
writer knows that knows what they're
saying because skeletons can't write
exactly and you might have also heard of
hyperbole which is what this is this is
like weig exaggeration but it serves to
drive home this person's point that they
feel really bad that they got a D on
this midterm and this is a very
effective way of conveying to us how
upset they are even though they're not
literally a skeleton and they don't
think they're literally a skeleton I
think the emotional impact of this is
much more effective than it would be if
I just said I am very upset because I
got a D on my midterm well I think this
is more expressive and certainly it's
not true but I think there's an
interesting way to play with over an
understatement in order to get feelings
across I think I think there's like a
little bit of a taboo in American
English speaking culture to to literally
say the state of your emotions and so
we've discovered these cultural idioms
through which we transmit emotion so
like compare the following two examples
delivered by Rosie okay I'm very angry
or yeah you could say I'm I'm a little
upset now Rosie is using understatement
but I think and I feel that the the
statement that uses
understatement actually conveys more
anger because it's more socially
acceptable in the United States to
somewhat publicly repress your emotions
yeah exactly I mean you could hear
somebody saying yeah I think I'm pretty
upset about that and they're kind of
laughing but they're upset you can see
the glorious subtlety of these language
techniques and and I understand this
this can make English a minefield for
people trying to learn the language
because the subtext of what you're
saying with overstatement and
understatement is more important than
the text itself exactly and I it's very
difficult to to learn to interpret those
cues there are plenty of native speakers
who have trouble with it it's true and
it's just something that you can keep an
eye out for when you're reading and also
when you're talking to people it may
start to you may start to spot them more
as you add you listen and I suspect that
if you listen and you study I have this
sneaking minut suspicion that you can
learn anything David out Randy out that
was awesome