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Continuing on from my last post, here are some more exaggerations and understatements.

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• STANDARD : “I’m tired”
• EXAGGERATION : “I’m knackered”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “I feel a bit out of breath”

‘Knackered’ originally had the meaning of ‘tired after strenuous sex’, but now is used to mean physically-tired. ‘Out of breath’ is how we describe someone who is breathing heavily after exercising.

originally - 元々
strenuous - 奮励（努力）

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• STANDARD : “The journey took a long time”
• EXAGGERATION : “The journey was absolute hell”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “The journey took rather a long time”

‘Hell’ (地獄) can be used to talk about any bad experience. There is also an adjective ‘hellish’ that is sometimes used. ‘Rather’ is a classic understatement word.

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• STANDARD : “a big dog”
• EXAGGERATION : “a huge great dog”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “a rather large dog”

‘Huge great’ are often used together to mean ‘very big’. Again you can see that ‘rather’ is often used in understatements.

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• STANDARD : “He’s stupid”
• EXAGGERATION : “He’s as thick as two short planks”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “He’s not very bright”

‘Plank’ means 「板」 - planks are not very clever… and ‘thick’ means ‘not clever, stupid’. ‘Bright’ means ‘clever, quick(-thinking)’, not ‘cheerful’. English people often use ‘not very’ with an adjective rather than saying exactly what they think. So, ‘not very bright’ is preferable to ’stupid’.

A is preferable to B - BよりAの方が好ましい

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• STANDARD : “He was drunk”
• EXAGGERATION : “He was off his face”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “He was a little tipsy”

‘Off your face’ means very drunk; another similar expression is ‘out of your tree’. ‘Tipsy’ sounds rather old-fashioned nowadays, but it means ‘a little affected by alcohol’.

old-fashioned - 旧式

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• STANDARD : “There were a lot of people there”
• EXAGGERATION : “There were millions of people there”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “There were quite a few people there”

‘Millions of people’ (何百万人) is a common exaggeration to describe a place crowded with people. ‘Quite a few’ is a very vague understatement.

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• STANDARD : “He is rich”
• EXAGGERATION : “He’s absolutely loaded”
• UNDERSTATEMENT : “He’s pretty well-off”

‘Loaded’ is a bit of a young person’s expression meaning ‘very rich’ and I think in America it can also mean ‘drunk’. ‘Well-off’ also means ‘rich’, ‘having no troubles with money’.

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I suppose younger people tend to use more exaggerations and older people tend to speak in understatements. Certainly understatements do sound more polite and restrained.

tend to - ～する傾向がある // polite - 丁寧
restrained - 控えられた

Here’s one final example conversation to finish off with which demonstrates how exaggeration and understatement can be used in a casual exchange :

• His family are pretty well-off, aren’t they?
• You can say that again. They’re absolutely loaded.