Useful Expressions

#1 The Benefit of The Doubt DEFINITION: - the state of accepting something/someone as honest or deserving of trust even though there are doubts Example: He might be lying, but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept what he says for now. - It means “to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad, when you have the possibilities of doing either” or “to trust someone even though you are not certain about the truth.” Example: “He might be lying but, for now, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept what he says.”

#2 To Say The Least DEFINITION: - to not describe something in the strongest way you could, often in order to be polite: EXAMPLE: The dinner was not tasty, to say the least. - used to show that something is worse or more serious than you are actually saying - used to say that you could have described something, criticized someone etc a lot more severely than you have  EXAMPLE: His teaching methods were strange, to say the least.

#3 On the fence DEFINITION Being on the fence means you really just can't decide. It's as if you're sitting on the fence because you can't decide which yard to play in. If you can't decide whether to take a job or not, you're on the fence. If you don't know which basketball team to root for, you're on the fence. EXAMPLE Many consumers are still on the fence, waiting for a less expensive computer to come along. Todd’s still sitting on the fence, trying to decide which school he wants to go to.

Taken from different sources: https://iso.mit.edu/idioms/give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/to-say-the-least. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/on-the-fence