What does “not half crowded in North American English? “Not crowded at all”?

Here in the UK "not half crowded" would mean it was *very* crowded. I don't believe Americans use the expression at all.

"Not half" = "fully" (or "very"). So "not half crowed" means "very crowded". It is a British phrase, as mentioned above. So while they might understand it well, and others might too, it could cause confusion. Strictly speaking "not half" *could* just as easily mean "not at all" too, it's just not used that way.

But... it doesn't mean anything in North American English, though. (personally I have only ever seen "Not half bad!" which means "pretty good" -- so, not not "more strongly"). It says up at the top that it's a UK idiom.

As a Canadian, I'd likely only use it in the phrase "not half bad," meaning something is good. I would understand what someone means if they used the first example, mostly through context, but the others I would have to make assumptions about what they meant.

I have never heard or read ‘not half’ used that way in American English. I have heard ‘not half bad’. “The coffee’s not half bad.” This means that the coffee is surprisingly good.

Are you asking what the American equivalent of "not half crowded" would be, or what it would mean if someone said "not half crowded" in America?

Not half crowded is a way of saying that it is very crowded. The usage of the term “not half” mostly is used to indicate that it’s clearly significantly more than half. This is mostly used in British English which has a habit of using milder phrasing while meaning something more exaggerated

At the top, you can see it says "UK, informal", meaning this is British slang and not something an American would say.

There's an inflection that goes with this usage in the UK - you'd never pronounce the two words fully and it's almost always coloured as an exclamation with an emphasis on "half" which almost always drops the "h" in this context, spelled in written dialogue as "not 'arf!"

We do use "not half bad" but that's about it.

*Totally,* as in “she totally yelled at him,” or “it was totally packed at the club last night.”

As an American I wouldn’t even understand the phrase “not half crowded.” I might think it meant the place was deserted. We do use “not half bad” to mean quite good, but the other uses haven’t really found their way stateside

As an American, I'd probably interpret as "not (even) half crowded", i.e. less than half crowded = mostly empty.

It's a strange phrase, the closest phrase I encounter commonly is "Half measures" "These aren't half-measures." would be obviously be these are full efforts. When you apply that same understanding to not half crowded it makes sense as crowded. It's consistent atleast.

Sounds British

The core phrase, 'not half bad', is used in American English. I take it to mean, not as bad as I worried it might be, but maybe not amazing. I don't see it commonly used here in other contexts, such as in the picture. Extrapolating to crowd size, I could see this going two opposite directions: If, say, a band worried they wouldn't be able to sell out a larger venue, but then it goes well, they might say 'it wasn't half crowded' meaning, we might not have filled every seat but it was well attended. Conversely, an introvert at a party might say 'it's not half crowded' meaning, I worried it would be too busy here, but it's not so crazy.

Nobody would really say that in North American English (as indicated in the definition). We might say something "isn't half bad," but that's about the extent to which we'd use that particular idiom.

This is a form of English idiom. A negative of a negative thing being extra positive. negative = not, half crowded = negative thing That’s not bad. = Very good.

Context is everything. You should eventually be able to tell what someone means by the context. I here new words every day in my line of work. It's always obvious what the person means. Now, are they using the word correctly... Maybe not.

It’s unlikely to be used. But if I heard a someone say it in a British accent or read it in a British book, I’d know what they meant.

This is a very rarely used expression, especially in American English. Even here in the UK, it's rarely used -- I mostly hear it from older people (60+). The only time you might hear "not half" as an expression nowadays is in the following: >"not half bad" This means that something was pretty good, usually when something was unexpectedly so. For example, if I saw a movie that I had low/middling expectations for, I might say: "I finally got round to seeing Detective Pikachu the other day, and honestly it wasn't half bad!" This means that I thought it would be mediocre or bad, but it was actually surprisingly decent. So using "not half" on its own means "very", but "not half bad" means "somewhat". Keep that difference in meaning in mind.

It ain’t half hot, Mum.

AFAIK, phrases like “not half… ” or “not a little… ” are UK slang and used in the US

Native American here (Central Texas), the only time I've ever heard variations of "not half" is in "wasn't half bad"/"isn't half bad". If it was very crowded I'd say it was "crowded", or I'd say it was "very crowded" if someone said "it wasn't half crowded" I would interpret that as "there were fewer than 50% crowding" or "there weren't many people there", with emphasis on probably fewer than 25% people there compared to the maximum number of people

Never heard anyone use this in the U.S.

It’s an English expression, commonly used by Londoners of a certain age. When my grandad was alive, he’d reply with ‘Corrr, not half’ when asked if he wanted a cup of tea or if he enjoyed something! It can mean yes or general agreement to something, or to put emphasis on something.

American Native speaker: If someone told me it wasn’t half crowded I’d take it to mean it wasn’t crowded at all 🤷🏽‍♂️

I never heard this expression in the US, and I find it confusing. I think most Americans would.

American here, if you were to say something like “not half bad” it would mean that it wasn’t bad at all, often used when you were expecting it to not be good. Example, “that meatloaf actually was actually not half bad”. That’s how we use it here in America.

I've never heard "not half crowded" in American English that I can recall.

I’m from the US (Michigan) and would interpret that as meaning it’s not crowded at all. I was surprised to see it actually means the opposite in the UK. It’s not a common phrase here and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it out of context of “not half bad” meaning kinda good.

We use this in the north east of england. Its an exagerrated way of saying that it was really something, can be with suprise. But we just say it wasn't half, not seperately or 'not half' on its own, never seen that used before. She wasn't half pissed off!

"not half" is basically unknown in American English except specifically in "not half bad."

I'm Canadian and wouldn't say any of those examples. They wouldn't sound natural to me, and I probably wouldn't know what was intended if I heard them. The only time I would use it is when I would say something was not half bad. Meaning it was surprisingly good. That ugly cake was not half bad. The New Kids concert that I got free tickets for wasn't half bad.

I think if you use this construction in North America, people will be very confused (or should I say "half confused")

Americans don't generally use *not half* *xxx* constructions except for *not half bad*, which means the same as *not bad*; i.e., "good enough, acceptable." This is the opposite of the British *not half xxx* constructions. I think most Americans would interpret *not half crowded* to mean *not crowded*! We do have phrases where the opposite of *half* is *whole*. E.g., *Don't use half measures* usually means "Give a full effort." It doesn't mean "Don't even try."

This doesn’t apply to American English.

I agree with everyone saying this isn't a common construction in the USA. But I picked it up from context because of related phrases "no half measures" or the more crass "don't half-a$$ it." So saying "she didn't half shout at him" would imply she really went all out in her effort.

If someone said “not half crowded” I would think that they meant it was not crowded at all, not very

I’ve definitely heard Americans (usually fairly rural ones) use “not half bad”, which means good, so I think the American perception of this phrase is the opposite of the British definition.

Not used in America.

As an American I'll hear "not half bad" which means something like 'good but not overwhelmingly great', and most commonly used in a situation where it's maybe a little surprising that it's \*not\* bad. At least in Colorado and the Midwest they only other time I'd ever hear anything described as "not half\_\_\_" is when it's literally taking about being less than half (full/complete/whatever) Not being familiar with this phrase if I heard "wasn't half crowded" I would assume that meant less than halfway to crowded - ie very small attendance.

never heard this

American here, I have never heard this expression in my life

In America "not half" would be thought of as "not YET half" as in it has not reached half. So "not half crowded" means "less than half crowded." The most common use of this is in the saying "that's not half bad" which typically is meant to say something is unexpectedly pretty good actually.

This is not a commonly used phrase in North America. The most common version here would be, "not half bad" which means pretty good. Because of the strong association with "not half bad", I imagine a good portion of Americans, like myself, would interpret the "not half" as "not at all". Upon first reading "not half crowded", I thought it meant not crowded. Using this phrase in North America could lead to confusion.

I think you're correct. Americans use the infamous "could care less", so I reckon they'd get this wrong too.

These comments got me questioning my life lol. If someone told me "it's not half bad" i would think it was just OK, like mid.

It's a British term. "Not half" is implying *more* than half, or "very" or "a lot." The confusing thing is that in America we also use "not half", but in a different way. We would say something is "not half bad" and mean that thing is "pretty good."

Australian. If I heard somebody the "the club is not half crowded," first I'd do a double-take as it doesn't flow naturally for my brain and I'd assume it was less than half full. I've only really ever heard "not half" when literally describing somethat isn't a half or in the phrase "not half bad" meaning surprisingly good (or something better than expected).

In USA none of these are right. The club was half full. "Not half bad" is a thing, but not "half bad" by itself.

The way I see it is that if something is "not half" something, then it's a najority. "Not half crowded" would mean it's more than a metaphorical "half crowded". For the opposite, you can say "I didn't like that half as much as I liked this" to mean it was less than a metaphorical "half"

Not seeing a lot of high up comments about how this would be used in American English. The phrase ‘not half crowded,’ isn’t a common phrase. However, it likely has a similar meaning to ‘not half bad.’ The phrase ‘not half’ generally, in American English, means ‘not even half’ and is closer to the positive option than the negative. So not half crowded would be more like not very crowded and not half bad would mine not very bad. Now the difference between not half and not very, such as not half bad, is that when using ‘not half,’ there is an implication that it was expected to be significantly worse than it actually turned out to be. To use it in a sentence to show the nuance: I was expecting the restaurant to be really busy at noon, but it wasn’t half crowded. Hope that explains it.

As an American, I have heard it used outside of "not half bad" (as others have said "not half bad" meaning good or atleast decent) but always with the same for lack of better word feeling as "not half bad" like not half crowded to me would mean it was not very crowded, as in it was less than 50 percent full ergo not half crowded

We don't use these expressions in the US and I would assume the exact opposite meanings as are given here.

I was introduced to this turn of phrase by reruns of "It ain't half hot mum" on Dutch TV. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It\_Ain%27t\_Half\_Hot\_Mum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Ain%27t_Half_Hot_Mum)

This is not an expression I'm familiar with in this context, as an American. I would have assumed it meant the opposite. We do, however, say "not half bad" which means "not bad at all."

If it's not half, then it's all. I'm dying at the amount of Americans making themselves look stupid in these comments

Look, not to be rude, but... your answer is *right there* in the image... (Including the info that it's a UK specific idiom, implying it would either mean nothing to an American or they'd get it from context and/or having heard it before)

None of those examples were sentences people would say in English.

"Not half bad" means it was better than you expected. Not half as bad as you thought it was going to be.

Very much a UK thing. Not used in North America.

I'm from the UK and only ever heard old people say that

As a North American speaker, the only time I would say it would be “not half bad” meaning decent but with a connotation leaning more towards good. Very similar in meaning if not the same as “not bad”

I usually hear it in the phrase, "not half bad!" as a kind of litotes (negative understatement) saying something is actually quite good.

I'm American and I have heard this, but like others have said it seems to have opposite meanings in British and American English similar to "just about" and "tabled." There's an Elliott Smith song called "Half Right" where one of the lines describes someone who is messed up as "not half right," which I think we must interpret as having an implied "even" as in "not even half right." There is also the phrase "not once" as in "not once have I seen a purple submarine" which if I apply the British logic of "not half" would mean I'd seen dozens of them but with the American interpretation would mean I'd seen zero. I'm guessing that means the same thing in both places, though, right?

You would never see an American say that

North America here. Never heard it. I've heard "not a little . . . "

The only way I would use a phrase like that would either be like “That ain’t half bad.” Which would mean that it is good, but in sort of an unexpected way. The other similar phrase would be, “You don’t know the half of it!” Which would be an exclamation that meant that something was worse or crazier than the other person knew.

“It was very crowded” “it was crowded” “it was pretty busy” “The place was stuffed” are all pretty common in New England. Edited because I misread the post, sorry. Thank you juntoalaluna for pointing that out