What were your answers? 

 

I’d hazard a guess they included a mix of ‘not bad’, ‘okay’ and – talk about damning with faint praise – ‘fine’. 

 

Ring a bell? Thought so. 

 

So, think about this for a minute. Why didn’t you say ‘amazing’? Indeed, have you ever said ‘amazing’, in your whole life? 

 

You’re not alone, because we are all so British, and as a rule we like to tread the safe middle ground when it comes to social niceties, rather than rocking the boat with a stronger word like ‘rubbish’ or, again, amazing. 

 

But the trouble with all of this, in my view, is that the word ‘fine’ is in the same league as ‘nice’. It’s meaningless and nine times out of 10 untrue, and therefore we’d be much better off not saying anything in the first place.