Poll: What does "That's not a bad idea" ordinarily mean to you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I recently heard a podcast about usage differences between Americans and British English people. (I can’t recall which podcast it was right now.)

The episode features a married couple in which the wife was American and the husband was British. They had been married for several years, and I think the wife might have been a linguist or a sociologist, but they still experience some American-British usage troubles.

In particular, they talked about the connotation of the phrase “That’s not a bad idea.” The American of the couple used it routinely in a neutral or positive sense, but the British member of the two understood it negatively.

So, for example, if the husband were to suggest a particular activity, such as dining at a particular restaurant or seeing a certain show, the wife might reply “That’s not a bad idea,” meaning, more or less “I’d be happy to do that. I hadn’t thought of it myself, but let’s try it. We very well might enjoy ourselves.”

However, the husband understood it to mean “I don’t like that idea.” Even though they had discussed this issue and the husband intellectually understood that the wife didn’t mean it negatively, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should abandon that idea and think of something else.

So, what does this phrase mean to you? I’d be interested in the context that you learned this phrase, for example, growing up in Britain or America.

Please choose the entire range of meaning that this phrase has for you. For you it means anything from slightly positive to very positive. I am American.

I understand that many phrases can intentionally be used to have the opposite meaning (for example, as sarcasm), but I am interested in what it ordinarily means to you.

2

What does the husband think “not” means?

3

It always means, “That’s a very good idea.” And it usually comes with a shading of surprise at how clever the idea is. It’s a compliment.

4

Everything above ‘meh’. It mean “it’s a good idea” in these parts.

5

The connotations of a particular usage can’t be explained with mathematical logic. If that’s what it meant to the people he learned to use it with, that’s what it meant.

6

I don’t think the OP sufficiently describes how the phrase can be negative. It requires the larger context of extended discourse, (with undertones of irony or mockery). Just mentioning the phrase alone isn’t sufficient, so I’m afraid the thread might not get anywhere.

But here is an example from the British National Corpus of how it can have a “negative” implication. (It’s from a discussion in some kind of pre-retirement course.)

7

I’m an American and I agree it means “that’s a good idea” but it’s the kind of problem that comes with using a negative in what should be a positive statement.

How are you feeling? “Not bad.” Does that mean good or, “I’m depressed but not suicidal”?

Did you like the book? “Not bad.” Would you recommend it to me or you just mean it wasn’t four hours of your life wasted?

I once had a boss who constantly responded to ideas with phrases like “that’s not impractical” and “that’s not too expensive.” I always felt it was his subtle way of agreeing to something but not making you feel good about suggesting it in the first place.

8

This is a job for Deborah Tannen!

9

Being American, I mostly take it in the second and third meanings. Not wildly enthusiastic, but still solidly in favor.

10

I’m an American. I’ve always understood the phrase to mean the suggestion is a good one which the speaker likes.

There is a connotation that there is an element of surprise involved. It can be neutral, as in “That’s a good idea that hadn’t occurred to me.” Or it can be negative, as in “I didn’t expect you to come up with a good idea.”

11

I would hope the couple would have learned to read each others’ body language and tone of voice. I usually say it with a note of “Hey, I am impressed…!”
But I’m not British (merely a colonist).

If the wife said it as an aside while sounding distracted, like she’s trying to think of a better idea, then I could see his interpretation. But if she can say it excitedly, then I’d tell him to take her at her word.

12

The rhetorical term for that sort of phrasing is litotes, a word I happen to like a lot as I have a tendency to phrase things in this manner.

13

Australian, spent a lot of my growing up years in the UK, and I would only ever understand it positively. “Typical British understatement” I would have said

14

How is that an example with a ‘negative’ implication? I’d rate that neutral to mildly positive - ‘John’ is agreeing with ‘unknown speaker’ that the idea could be workable

15

If I use it, or hear someone else use it, I assume it’s the rhetorical device of litotes - used to avoid committing too strongly. To me, “it’s not a bad idea” suggests cautious acceptance of what was proposed.

ETA - ninja’ed by pulykamell. That’ll teach me not to post without reading all the posts carefully.

16

To me, that would be indicated by tone. Most of the time, though, when I hear it, it’s more of a “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that!” type of usage rather than cautious acceptance. I voted the second option in the poll, but it really can be any of the first three depending on how it’s said, and where the emphasis and pauses are.

17

I’ve only heard it in a generally positive light, but I could imagine every interpretation depending on a combination of context and rendering. Do US and UK folks intone differently?

18

American, and it means all of those to me. As was said earlier in the thread, context is everything when it comes to knowing what is meant.

19

I’m British and I endorse this comment.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

20

Yeah, me too. This seems more like a personal quirk than a genuine US/UK difference in usage.

Perhaps the wife sounds really sarcastic when she says it?