Learning English

What does the English phrase "it is safe to say" mean?

‘It is safe to say’ is one of those phrases often used in official letters when one wishes to convey that they are ‘almost - but not absolutely - sure of what they are about to claim.

For example, a doctor, after prescribing antibiotics for a common ailment will tell you, “it is safe to say, that you’ll be feeling better in 2 or 3 days and will be able to go to work once you’ve finished the course of antibiotics”.

Or someone who has sent your cheque by mail and posted it themselves will say ‘it is safe to say you’ll receive your cheque tomorrow, because I posted it myself yesterday’.

What this expression implies is that given normal circumstances

a) the patient will recover within the time the doctor has stated

b) the cheque should arrive at the claimants house by the next day

however, there is always a chance that things don’t unfold in the way they are expected to because we have no way of predicting that the patient may have developed a stronger strain of virus then his/her symptoms prevented at the time the doctor visited, and the person who posted the cheque has no way of knowing that there is going to be a postal strike or that a bomb may have blown up close to the mail-box and destroyed everything in it.

Synonyms of ‘it is safe to say’ are

probably
highly likely
There is no reason to doubt that
All things being equal
Given normal circumstances