The architecture of “not bad”: Decoding the Chinese source code of the void

English does construct things this way, maybe just not with the frequency of Chinese. In fact, "not bad" is a common expression.

That said, it's true that certain flavors of US English, like marketing speak, will avoid many phrases in this family.

This is because many American English speakers will see expressions like this, particularly when not used in a directly complementary way, as either bureaucratic and avoidant or slightly pedantic or both. Because for many Americans, leaving ambiguity implies lack of confidence in the statement or evasiveness. (At the same time Americans also know not to trust confident statements - they are separately known to be "snake oily" - but we still tend to see marketing that avoids directness as even less trustworthy.)

So this mode of expression is much more common in personal speech.

Kids in the Pacific Northwest use litotes constantly, to the point of annoyance, and possibly more often than they use the straightforward positive. Everything is "not bad" or "not great" or, if really bad, "super not great." I've always taken it to be a kind of avoidance of confessing one's real feelings.

"super not great" IS a real feeling :)

(fellow PNWer, I'd never before thought of this as a regional thing!)

also, TIL the word "litotes" -- thank you, brother!

Best examples of litotes can be found in social media, Chinese or English or any language

My guess is that "bu chuo" _was_ a litotes (or originated as one) but the ironic component evaporated with familiarity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes#Chinese

The literal English translation still seems to be a litotes

> In fact, "not bad" is a common expression.

“Not too bad” is also common and even weaker.

The verbal construction words you learn in Classics are excellent. Litotes, chiasmus, synecdoche...

Yeah this tracks - if someone says something is “not great” it’s probably extremely bad haha. or “super cool no problems here” (there’s tear gas streaming through the windows)