student asking question

What does "not [adjective] enough" mean? Could you give me other examples as well?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Not <adjective> enough" means that the person hasn't met the standard of what IS enough to do something. The standard is insufficient. Here, Harry cleverly used his cloak of invincibility, but he was "not clever enough" to be unnoticed by the twins on his mission. Ex: Jen thinks that she is not pretty enough to be a model. Ex: My school project was not good enough to get an A. Ex: We worked hard on this problem, but not hard enough since the problem is not solved. Ex: Is my room clean enough? Ex: I was not smart enough to get into a good university.

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