How can I easily identify litotes?

1 Answer
Nov 1, 2016

Look for the "not un-" structure.

Explanation:

A litote is a way of stating something by using understatement and contrasting two ideas.

Ex: He was not unkind.
She was not unwise.

That's how it will be structured, generally speaking. There will likely be more words, but it shouldn't complicate things too much. Here's a link for more information:

http://literarydevices.net/litotes/