Question
Updated on
1 Jul 2020
- Japanese
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English (US)
Question about English (US)
Don’t be modest.
Don’t be humble.
Are these almost the same? Which is more common?
Don’t be modest.
Don’t be humble.
Are these almost the same? Which is more common?
Don’t be humble.
Are these almost the same? Which is more common?
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No, you should not use the second one.
The first one could be used when someone is really good at something, but they are downplaying their own achievements. Then you can say, "don't be modest!"
Ex.:
A: "I'm really not that good at the piano."
B: "What are you talking about?! You just won the national piano championship! Don't be so modest."
The second one is basically the same as "be arrogant." This is probably not something you want to tell people!
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@zu-chan Both are acceptable, though I believe “He is humble” is more commonly used.
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@zu-chan As you may be able to tell from my previous answer, "modesty" is often associated with the meaning that the person is downplaying their achievements too much. That's why there is the expression "false modesty," which is used when someone knowingly downplays their achievements so that they cause other people to praise them.
When you use "modest" to directly describe a person, such as "he is modest" it's usually a positive meaning. It means that person is humble. But the connotation is that the way that you come to this conclusion is by how they express their own achievements. Someone who is modest will not exaggerate their own achievements. (The expression "don't be modest" is used when someone takes this to the extreme and instead of simply not exaggerating, they also downplay it.)
Humble is the opposite of arrogant (偉そう). If you use it to describe a person in a positive way, saying they are modest is almost the same as saying they are humble. The only nuance is that a modest person is humble, but a humble person doesn't have to be modest. This is because "being modest" can have the connotation of downplaying your achievements. Humility does not have this connotation, at least not to the extent of modesty.
Also, someone can have humility before authority (such as at church, you can be humble before God), which means that they defer to the authority. But you cannot use "modest" in this sense.
The tricky part is that "modest" also has other meanings.
It can mean "just enough for what is necessary." For example, you can say "he makes a modest living," which means he makes just enough to be comfortable, but nothing above that.
It can also be used about how someone dresses. For example, "he dresses modestly" means that his clothing is not too revealing. (There is just enough for what is considered necessary, not too little of it.)
長々とした説明になってしまいごめんなさい。
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