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C'est un peu comme si ...

I have always thought that "un peu" here clearly means "a little/bit (like)", but the fact that "un peu" in "un peu partout" is to be construed as "almost / pretty much (everywhere)" leads me to assume that "un peu comme si" too can have the meaning of "almost / a lot (like)" rather than "a little/bit (like)".

I also wonder if there is another expression where the meaning of "un peu" leans towards "almost / a lot", as in "un peu partout".

2 Answers 2

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The un peu add a nuance on an absolute word like partout. So un peu partout means "not everwhere, but almost everywhere".

I translate C'est un peu comme si in "It's nearly like". So the sentence seems to be less categoric.

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Generally, I wouldn't translate un peu partout by "almost everywhere" which is presque partout but more by something like "sparsely/randomly/scattered all over the place".

Similarly, un peu comme si means somewhat like if instead of "a lot like if", i.e. is more about quality than quantity.

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