ganz gut as an insult?

[Dan Leifker]

So it appears as if "ganz" can be used in two confusing ways.

"Es ist ganz weit" means "it's really far" (or quite far, or pretty far,
or rather far, etc), right? But I remember being told a long time ago
that if I'm invited to dinner, I should NEVER say "Das Essen war ganz
gut" to the host.

I repeated "Das Essen war ganz gut" to my German teacher last night, and
she exploded in laughter. (??) She said it meant the meal was
mediocre, perhaps something along the lines of "The meal wasn't bad" or
"the meal was okay" or "the meal was so-so." These would be rather
insulting in English.

Confusingly, she said that "Das war ein ganz gutes Essen" would be just
fine.

If "ganz" is a neutral intensifier in "ganz weit," then is it carrying
some extra meaning in "ganz gut"?

thanks
dleifker

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Dan Leifker schrieb:

Think if the English intensifier "quite", which is very similar in igt's
use. If you said a meal was "quite good", it would definitely not be a
compliment, but if you say somewhere is "quite far", the "quite" is neutral.

Gruß, Einde O'Callaghan

[Dan Leifker]

Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

>> If "ganz" is a neutral intensifier in "ganz weit," then is it carrying
>> some extra meaning in "ganz gut"?
>>
> Think if the English intensifier "quite", which is very similar in igt's
> use. If you said a meal was "quite good", it would definitely not be a
> compliment, but if you say somewhere is "quite far", the "quite" is
> neutral.
>
> Gruß, Einde O'Callaghan

Maybe "fairly" would be another example. "The hill is fairly steep" is
neutral, but "your cooking is fairly good" or "your daughter is fairly
attractive" would be deadly insults. Hmmm.

[Johannes Dolch]

Dan Leifker schrieb:

I simply would suggest to refuse to use the word ganz, it is not important.

Simply use "sehr", it doesnt has the same ambivalent problem.

Das Essen war sehr gut. The meal was very good.

Die Stadt ist sehr weit weg. The city is very far away.

The problem /w "ganz" is, that the meaning has become blurred during the
dacedes. Originally the meaning was somewhat mediocre. "Der Typ war ganz
gross" riginally meant "The Guy was rather huge, but not extremely"
today it means "The Guy was extremely huge." But ganz didnt shift its
meaning in all cases. So i think its a good idea to simply avoid it. As
i said before, its not necessary.