A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing

Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 308 points – 1 years ago

If you're up for something, or down for something, it means the same thing.

If you fill in a form or fill out a form, it means the same thing.

English is fucked.

Think about filling in a form, though. Filling in a form—“to fill” is unambiguous. In/out isn’t even necessary when you think about it. “I’m going to fill a form” means the same thing too.

I feel like you're technically correct, but saying "fill a form" just sounds weird to a native English speaker.

The alarm went off, so I turned it off.

Also try this inflammable table with flammable chairs.

I hate this one, it confuses Dutch people from time to time, so they think “inflammable” means “fire resistant”.

Extra scary when there's only an English-language warning on this

Don't forget you might already be in the right place and don't need to go up or down. Then you can say you're "there for something"

I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

I've never not heard it said sarcastically.

There are words and phrases in English that get used sarcastically so often they lose their original meaning. There is a word for this and I swear I've seen a whole list somewhere but my google fu is weak today.

Semantic satiation?

No - semantic satiation is when you read or hear a word so much in a short timeframe that it stops feeling like a real word, and briefly feels like just a jumble of letters/sounds.

I hate semantic satiation. It happens all the time while programming for me. I'll have a variable name with some common word and, after typing it a few times my brain just stops recognizing it as a real word. This sometimes sends me into etymology dives to figure out why the word "jump" (or whatever) looks so strange.

Row•ads, that is a freaky word

2 more...

There's a fat chance you're gonna be eating those words.

Now, I expect to be down voted.

I don't care, but I'm going to piss a lot of people off.

I say "I could care less".

That's sarcasm. It's what my nineties, heroin chic, grunge music adolescence gave me.

I could care less. It would just require that I make an effort. That's not caring less. That's caring about something.

It's like how the biggest homophobes always seem to be closeted. They care too much.

You think "could care less" is actually legit? Fat chance!

You think it isn’t? Slim chance!

I remember we used to say “like I could care less” sarcastically back in the late 80s. I moved to a non-English speaking country in ‘89 so I have no idea when “I could care less” shifted from sarcasm to incorrect grammar, but I was surprised the first time I encountered people online mention it as a grammatical pet peeve.

The queen would like a word ☺️

I'm never quite sure what it says about me that I find David Mitchell the most relatable person on television.