British English has many ways to say yes without making a promise.
Leave it with me: I will look at it. It may or may not happen.
I’ll see what I can do: I will try, but I promise nothing.
I’ll bear it in mind: I will probably do nothing.
That could work: I am not convinced.
In principle, yes: Yes, but the details may turn it into a no.
We’ll see: Probably not.
British official language has stock phrases for meetings that did not produce agreement.
A full and frank discussion: An argument.
Constructive talks: Talks that produced nothing definite.
We have agreed to keep talking: We have agreed on nothing else.
Noted: Read, and not accepted.
In due course: Not soon, and perhaps never.
When a bill has passed through Parliament, the sovereign’s assent is announced in Norman French. The usual formula is Le Roy le veult, “the King wills it.” The formula for withholding assent is Le Roy s’avisera, “the King will consider it.” When the sovereign is a queen, La Reyne replaces Le Roy.
The refusal has not been used since 11 March 1708, when Queen Anne withheld her assent from the Scottish Militia Bill.
The BBC comedy Yes Minister follows a government minister, Jim Hacker, and the civil servants who manage him. One often-quoted line explains two official phrases: “‘Under consideration’ means we’ve lost the file. ‘Under active consideration’ means we’re trying to find it.”
Sources differ on where the line comes from. A transcript places it in the episode “The Official Visit.” A newspaper attributes it to Bernard, the minister’s private secretary, explaining the phrases to Hacker.
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the clergyman Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth Bennet, and she refuses him. He is not discouraged. He tells her he knows “that it is usual with young ladies to reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept.”
In British football, a board’s public statement of support for its manager is called a vote of confidence. The phrase is often used with irony.
In December 2024, Wolverhampton Wanderers dismissed their manager, Gary O’Neil, after a home defeat by Ipswich Town. The club’s chairman, Jeff Shi, had backed him in public. New four-year contracts had been signed only four months earlier. The Guardian wrote that despite this backing, it had seemed “inconceivable” that O’Neil would last until the next match.
A draft contract of 5 July 2005 between RTS Flexible Systems and the dairy company Molkerei Alois Müller said it would not take effect until it was signed and exchanged. The work began before that happened.
In 2010 the Supreme Court held that a binding contract had come into being by conduct, on or about 25 August 2005, on the terms the parties had agreed. It also warned that a court “should not impose binding contracts on the parties which they have not reached.”
In a private note to President George W. Bush about Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote: “I will be with you, whatever. But this is the moment to assess bluntly the difficulties.” The note was published by the Iraq Inquiry on 6 July 2016.
The inquiry drew attention to the first sentence. It found that Blair had not made a satisfactory post-conflict plan a condition of British participation in military action.
In a survey published in January 2019, YouGov asked people in Britain what common British phrases mean. Fifty-five percent said that “I’ll bear it in mind” means “I’ve forgotten it already.” Fifty-seven percent said that “You must come for dinner” is said out of politeness, not as a real invitation.
On 11 July 2016, Theresa May launched her campaign for the Conservative leadership in Birmingham. She said: “Brexit means Brexit, and we’re going to make a success of it.” As prime minister, she used the phrase again in her speech to the Conservative conference in October 2016.
The phrase left unclear what leaving would mean in practice. In October 2016, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Commons: “I am sure she will tell us one day what it actually means.”