1 yr. ago • 96%

A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing

34 comments

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.

95
- 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.
  
  18
  
  I feel like you're technically correct, but saying "fill a form" just sounds weird to a native English speaker.
  
  10
- The alarm went off, so I turned it off.
  
  12
- 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"
  
  10
- Also try this inflammable table with flammable chairs.
  
  10
  
  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
  
  2
I guess fat chance is said sarcastically.

56
- I've never not heard it said sarcastically.
  
  28
  
  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.
  
  10
  
  There's a fat chance you're gonna be eating those words.
  
  6
  
  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.
  
  2
You can make profit on and profit off

27
- I could build on your point or build off of it.
  
  7
  
  But if you’re hardly working, you’re not working hard.
  
  2
- Alarms can go off and be turned off
  
  6
Yup. And one means it via sarcasm.

20
- Yeah, with this argument, "excellent" and "terrible" means the same thing.
  
  7
one is just said sarcastically

14
Fun fact: awful and awesome used to be synonyms

11
Antiautonyms! https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/antiauto.html

Or contronyms. I don’t funny understand the delineation between the two.

9
I've always loved Mace Windu telling someone "your chances come in two sizes: slim and fat" in an old Star Wars Novell called Shatterpoint.

4
Fat chance is a sarcastic phrase, so they don't actually have the same literal meaning

2
https://johnsonenglishdhs.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/1/5/121524970/english_is_a_crazy_language_full_text.pdf

1
Not when you have a slim Jim

-8
- I tried eating a Fat Jim but then I got banned from Grindr
  
  3
  
  🤣
  
  -10

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