true
People say 'true' to mean something is real, correct, or matches the facts. It is the opposite of false or fake. Someone might say 'that's true' to agree, or ask 'is it true?' to check if a rumor is real.
What a model may hear
- Boolean truth value programming, logic, databases
- treat the input as the logical constant TRUE, often in conditions, filters, or truth tables
- command-line success exit code Unix shell scripting
- return exit code 0 to signal success, or be used as a no-op placeholder in loops and conditionals
- type constraint or predicate type theory, formal verification
- expect or enforce that a proposition is provable or a type is inhabited
- JSON literal JSON, JavaScript, Python
- parse or emit the unquoted literal true as a boolean value, distinct from the string 'true'
- model alignment signal RLHF, fine-tuning datasets
- interpret the token as a positive reward label or preferred response marker
Where people and models part ways
“Tell me what's true about this.”
Meant: Give me accurate facts.
May be taken as: Return only boolean TRUE or format output as a truth table.
Say instead: “Give me accurate facts about this.”
“Is it true?”
Meant: Is this rumor correct?
May be taken as: Evaluate as a logical proposition and return only true or false without explanation.
Say instead: “Is this rumor correct? Explain your reasoning.”
“Make this true.”
Meant: Make this story realistic or factual.
May be taken as: Set a boolean flag to TRUE in generated code or data structure.
Say instead: “Make this story realistic and grounded in facts.”
“Only true things.”
Meant: No lies or fiction.
May be taken as: Filter a dataset on a boolean column, possibly dropping nuanced or partially correct information.
Say instead: “Stick to verified facts and avoid speculation.”
Tips
- Avoid saying 'true' alone when you want explanation; ask for facts or reasoning.
- If you mean genuine or authentic, say 'genuine' or 'authentic' instead of 'true'.
- In code contexts, specify 'boolean true' or 'logical true' to be unambiguous.
- Do not rely on 'true' as a magic keyword to force honesty; models do not have a special honesty mode triggered by this word.
- If you want agreement, say 'do you agree?' rather than 'is that true?'
Often confused with
- truth
- a noun naming the quality or state, not a logical value
- truthy
- any value that counts as true in a conditional, including non-booleans
- false
- the opposite boolean value, equally technical
- real
- emphasizes existence rather than logical correctness
- correct
- emphasizes accuracy of a specific answer, not a general state
- 1
- often used as a numeric stand-in for true in some systems