Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
Back in 2016, my colleague Kate Woodford wrote a pair of posts on ways of describing good and bad things. However, sometimes things aren’t particularly good or bad, but somewhere in between. This post covers a selection of words and phrases you can use in these cases.
In general, the words fine, OK, and all right are at the more positive end of the scale, though it does depend on the context and your tone of voice:
Is your food OK?
The hotel was fine but not exactly luxurious.
Chocolate ice cream is all right but I prefer vanilla.
More formally, you could say that something is acceptable or adequate, meaning that it is good enough. However, adding a phrase such as just about or no more than before these adjectives makes them more negative:
His exam results were acceptable.
The standard of her work was just about adequate.
When something is good enough but we are not enthusiastic about it, we might say rather informally that it’ll have to do, and if we choose something we don’t like very much because the alternatives are worse, we might say that it is the best of a bad bunch or the best of a bad lot:
This coat’s a bit old but it’ll have to do.
I don’t really like this photo, but it was the best of a bad bunch.
If we say that something isn’t too bad or that it is halfway decent, we mean that it is fairly, but not extremely, good:
Paul’s party wasn’t too bad.
She has a halfway decent piano.
In English, we often use negative structures to express mild criticism, for example by using the word not before a positive word, or by using the negative form of an adjective:
It’s not the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.
His wife is an unremarkable woman.
If the quality of something is good in some parts and less good in others, we might describe it as patchy or uneven. In British English, we sometimes call things that have good and bad parts a curate’s egg, a humorous idiom that comes from the story of a nervous young priest who was too polite to say that the egg he’d been given was bad, insisting instead that ‘parts of it are excellent’!:
The quality of teaching was patchy.
Provision of mental health care is uneven.
The show was a bit of a curate’s egg.
I hope these words and phrases are useful and will help to make your English much more than acceptable!
very useful, thanks
Thanks for the blog
Thank you
Keep give to cemunity dont put in draft just learn All time But coming win one time every one need to be focus on the way what you thing for you Actually you want to achieve and everyone can do
This will do.
Thank you! Very useful!
That was extremely informative, thank you so much
It was a brilliant article that you’ve put together! I’ve learned new interesting bits and will certainly start using them from now on. Have a lovely one!
It was a brilliant article that you’ve put together! I’ve learned new interesting bits and will certainly start using it from now on. Have a lovely one!
CURATE”s EGGS – strong expression, besides it is a very witty.
Thank You, Liz, for the explainations like stars
Thanks for the blog
Thank you! Very useful!
Hello Everyone,
I just stumbled onto this page while I was looking for something else. I really enjoy building my vocabulary!
Thank you for sharing the knowledge ! It always serves one well to expand the linguistic horizons… 😊
Thanks you for sharing theknowledge! It always serves one well to expand the linguistic horizons….
Thank you for providing some information fir learning 👌
I Wana say thanks for information right words and same teacher I can understand aslo English but this is bestfor all
Thank yoo