not brilliant

[navi tasan]

Is this sentence correct:

1-It was sort of not brilliant.

I think it is, but in it, "not brilliant" seems to form a single unit. It is as if it is "not-brilliant".
Could I be right?

Gratefully,
Navi.

[LeTyan]

-------NOT A TEACHER------

I suppose you could say it in a casual setting but I wouldn't say or write something like that in a test, especially an English one.

[emsr2d2]

Is this sentence correct:

1-It was sort of not brilliant.

I think it is, but in it, "not brilliant" seems to form a single unit. It is as if it is "not-brilliant".
Could I be right?

Gratefully,
Navi.

You're right that "not brilliant" is being used as an adjective. It's definitely not standard English but I can imagine hearing it. If I were trying not to be too rude about something, I might describe it as "not brilliant" to show that perhaps it wasn't as good as I had expected, but it was still good. Note though that that is just my take on it, it doesn't have a standard definition.

[5jj]

Note though that that is just my take on it, it doesn't have a standard definition.

As a definition, it was, well like, OK, but, you know, sort of like, not brilliant....

... like.