What does "sure" as a reply to your suggestion mean to you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

(This is a redo of a previous thread (https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21577093#post21577093), because I’m an idiot and I misremembered the subject of the podcast)

About six months ago I heard a podcast episodes about usage differences between Americans and British English people. It was the “A Family Divided by English” (https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-world-in-words/a-family-divided-by-english-QUYdA-a5IuT/) episode of N.P.R.'s “World in Words” (Subtitle : NPR) podcast

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

In particular, they talked about the connotation of the word “sure” as a reply to a suggestion. 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 “sure,” 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

“Sure” means “yes” or “OK” as a response to a suggestion. No other connotation.

3

Hmm, I think this is harder to answer than your first question, and I haven’t actually voted. I think tone is crucial here, as well as the relationship between the parties. It could certainly be used to indicate enthusiastic agreement in Britain, but that would require a chirpy and encouraging tone.

However it would not be at all unusual for British people to say “Sure” with a mocking or highly sarcastic tone to indicate, “that’s your worst suggestion yet”.

4

And if it was said in a neutral tone in Britain, I think it would probably indicate indifference.

5

I voted “somthing else” because the parentheticals are too specific to apply every time. Maybe I can totally believe I didn’t think of it myself. Or maybe I had thought of the same idea but for some reason hadn’t mentioned it.

Generally speaking, if I respond “sure” to someone else’s suggestion, it’s positive. As several people in the previous thread mentioned, context and tone of voice can change this. If I say “suuurrre…” while rolling my eyes, obviously I’m being sarcastic. But an affable “sure!” is at least moderately, though probably not overwhelmingly, positive.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, St. Louis, Baltimore, and New Hampshire.

6

I think it depends on the inflection.
Something enthusiastic (“Sure!”) is, “That’s a really good idea.”
Something neutral (“Sure”) is, “I don’t mind.”
Something said almost as if there was no other answer to the question ("…sure…") is, “I don’t like the idea, but I suppose I can live with it.”

7

The parentheticals are optional. They don’t have to apply every time. I should have specified that.

8

Unless it’s obviously sarcastic or miserable sounding, I’d assume it was positive.

If I got just the word ‘sure’ in a text from someone as a reply to a suggestion, I’d assume they were at least moderately happy with the idea, and I’ve probably sent just that as a text myself, with that meaning. If it had an exclamation mark after it, I’d take that as them being very happy with it.

I’m English, living in England.

9

It can mean many things depending on context and inflection.

10

“Sure” oftentimes means, “I don’t agree, but I don’t want to waste my time or energy in a debate either, so I’ll just say ‘sure’ to temporarily hold you here and placate you long enough for me to make my getaway from the subject.”

11

I’m an American. As others have said, the subtext behind “sure” depends hugely on context and tone. It can be anything from hearty agreement, to indifferent agreement, to “yeah, whatever, just shut up about it already.”

Your mention of the possible difference between how Americans and Brits interpret it reminded me of what I learned about the word “nice.” I’d always used it as a term of moderate approval or compliment, as in “that looks nice.” A friend of mine, who grew up in Ireland, is a web designer, and she often asks me to give her a third-party opinion on work she does. The first time I used “it looks nice,” she was crushed; to her, “nice” is the term that gets used for “it’s not particularly good at all, but I’m too polite to say ‘it’s bad.’”

12

Grew up in Philly and chose the second meaning although the first is a possibility if it was a very enthusiastic “Sure”. On the other hand, a very sarcastic tone might have a negative connotation.

13

I voted “Something else” because it just means “okay”. There’s too much emotion in all of the options in the poll. It doesn’t necessarily mean “fantastic” or “really good”, or even “meh”. It just means “okay; yes; I agree/concur”.

14

Canadian, here…

It can be positive, neutral, or negative depending on how it’s said.

‘Yeah, sure!’ Good idea!
‘OK, sure.’ I’m not enthusiastic, but why not?
‘sigh Sure…’ I don’t want to, but I’ll do it without too much objection, if you want to.
‘heavy sigh Fine, sure.’ I really don’t want to, but I know I won’t get any peace if I don’t.

Unadorned ‘Sure’ in text, I would generally read the neutral way.

15

British context - I picked the three options surrounding ‘Meh’. Definitely less positive than ‘not a bad idea’.

The core connotation is ‘I won’t stand in the way of that’ but with no clue being given as to why not, an easy assumption to make is that the reason is ‘because I’m polite’ not ‘because I actually like the idea’.

It’s hard to make it very positive except with an extremely upbeat intonation, because it’s so curt.

16

Since it’s multiple choice, I went with all the positive answers. It just indicates agreement, and nothing else is implied. The only thing that would be helpful is tone of voice: an excited “sure” would be the first two, while a more sedate “sure” would be more “good enough.”

I didn’t go with “meh” because that’s too neutral. It implies “could go one way or the other,” but I think “sure” is always at least slightly positive. But it can be less positive than your third choice. It could be “I don’t prefer this choice, but it will work.”

American here.

This is leaving out the sarcastic “sure” because I would not expect that to ever be sent in text directly, without Suuuuure or some context to make it clear that it is sarcastic.

17

I’m American and it can mean anything from " That’s the best idea ever" to “that’s the worst idea ever” depending on context , tone of voice etc. Leaving out the sarcastic use, it can still be anything from " I’d love to" to " OK , because otherwise you’ll never let me have any peace. " Which I why I never text the single word “Sure” .

I wonder if the American -British difference described is less because of an actual difference in meaning and more that the Brit typically hears it used sarcastically

18

Personally, I would probably say something like “Sure, sounds good” if I wanted to indicate a positive response – not just “Sure” by itself as a sentence. That seems a little abrupt.

19

It depends on how it’s said. “sigh sure” means something different than “Sure!!!”.

As an answer to, “what deodorant do you use?” it means something entirely different.

20

Yeah, I can’t really answer the OP, or rather, I just answer all the options. It very much depends on this. To me, the answer “sure,” on its own is pretty much always tone dependent. I personally am most likely to use it as a curt “yeah, yeah, yeah, just leave me alone.” There’s also a chirpy “sure!” which is clearly positive and enthusiastic, but I typically reserve the word for more curt interactions to mean “I’ll agree with you just to shut you up.” That I typically just say with a deadpan, neutral intonation.