On 20/12/15 11:45, Michael Uplawski wrote:
On Sun, 20 Dec 2015 11:36:28 +0000,
Tom Gardner wrote:

Sure. Unsurprising. You appear to be taking my
vague second-hand observations more seriously
than I intended.

Unsurprising, because in English the phrase is determined by the
circumstances, not the invers, like in German. :-)
That's one of the difficulties of the English language.

Some have claimed that French is the language of diplomats,
since it is less easy to be misunderstood in French than it
is in English.

Personally I suspect it is easy enough to be "economical
with the actualité" in French!
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/127700.html