big if true

9.2

Something that would be very important if it is true

idiom

Texting

: grande si es cierto

The article says the new device will revolutionize medicine—big if true.

Examples

That rumor about the company splitting is big if true.
He told me aliens landed in his garden, which is big if true.
That's a big if true statement!
The news is a big if true claim about the company.
He told me aliens landed in his garden, which is big if true.
That rumor about the company splitting is big if true.
The article says the new device will revolutionize medicine—big if true.

Surface Forms

big if true main

Morphology

big + if + true

The meaning is directly compositional: 'big' (important) qualified by the conditional clause 'if true' — i.e. it would be important provided it is true. This clipped, conversational ordering is predictable from the constituent meanings and common conditional patterns across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the words should grasp the MWE.

Etymology

Big if true gives a simple picture: something that looks big but only if it is true. People say this when a claim would be 'very important' or 'have large effects' only if it really is true.