My friends and I were having a discussion the other day about scams. One guy said they are "not uncommon" while another said they are "common". This started a whole discussion about whether "common" and "not uncommon" are the same or different.
What do you think?
Ooh, me likey (a language q.)
Not uncommon is a lesser-occurring situation than common. Yes, that be my answer.
I like to use this playfully irreverent wording in my creative writing. (Such as in a romance/erotica piece, one character using verbal wordplay, and not wanting to bluntly admit how they feel about something the other has said, yet while actually fully admitting that they do, in fact, love it. It's an admission, but with a certain playful defiance or faux denial, sort of thing. Love it.)
But what was the consensus on your debate - scams are common, or not uncommon? lol (There is no definitive answer, however, of course.) P. S. Sextortion and romance scams are waaaaay up. Be careful out there, people. Females tend to have revenge porn inflicted upon them. Males tend to be victims of sextortion crimes.
Our consensus was that scams are "not uncommon".
Common means highly likely whereas not uncommon means likely. Eg it is common for fish to be blue (ie most fish are blue) but it is not uncommon for fish to be orange (a good number fish are orange) and it is uncommon for fish to be green (very few fish are green)
Common is a very vague term.
Is 1% of the population running scams common?
How about 0.1%?
How about 0.01%
With any of the above, you will almost certainly run into scammers. Does that make it common because virtually everyone will run into scammers on a regular basis?
I'd say scams are common. Especially when I consider most sales people scammers, even though it's legal. Scammers are everywhere. They are a small majority, but they are an active small majority. That's why we all run into them.
To me, uncommon means you rarely run into them. But that's not the case.
I think that is faulty as you are putting the amount of something existing and how much effect it has
Common and not uncommon means the same thing; although, not uncommon sounds slightly less than common 😁.
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What's Your Opinion? Sign Up Now!Not uncommon is a step down from common. For example if I say it's common to see dolphins here, that suggests you're pretty much guaranteed to see them.
But it's not uncommon to see dolphins means we stand a decent chance of seeing them.
I would relate common as to very often and not uncommon as to sometimes
Yes
Common is very common ength that you (not sure its right way to type this) atribute to it the tag common
Its not uncommon is not to the same level of common, but is still pretty high as no direct atribute to the common word
There's a whole lot of area in between common and uncommon. Simply not being one doesn't make it the other by default.
Uncommon means rare. Maybe that means <5% or <10%.
Not uncommon means not rare. So that means more than 5% or 10%. But 20% or 25% would still not be common in the way I use the words.
"Not uncommon" is less common than "common", but not as infrequent as "rare".
Would you say there is a difference between “a giant” and “not a dwarf?”
If something is common it is plentiful. If something is not uncommon it is not rare. It is less plentiful than just common.
From what I no there's no double negation in English language.
Actually the language does have double negatives. "Non uncommon" is completely legit. Use a scale of 1-10, with 1-3 being common, and 8-10 being uncommon. 4-7 would not be common. It would also not be uncommon.
Common is often
Uncommon is not often.
How is this a debate?
But what is "not uncommon"? Not Not often? The Not's cancel out to "often", which means they're the same thing?
Common… Often… happening frequently. Uncommon… Not often … not happening frequently
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