In a recent email I received was this line: "Be under no illusion that 2011 is Our Year."
From what I understand "Be under no illusion" means the same as "Don't be fooled". So I would expect that it would be followed by comments such as "It's going to be tough, but we can do it together" or some similar sentiment. However, this statement is then followed by a positive statement.
To me this contradicts the use of "Be under no illusion". Do I have the meaning wrong or is this one of those crazy phrases that can be used both as a negative and as a positive?
Best Answer
I agree with you that this, at best, is an unusual use of the phrase "be under no illusion", while not saying that it's necessarily wrong.
The phrase implies that someone might develop, or has already developed, an illusion (a distorted view) of something. So perhaps if the conventional wisdom was "2011 is not going to be our year", the phrase "Be under no illusion, 2011 is our year" might make more sense?