"As a rule"

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Yes ... but among the young folks? I am all for preserving such things and having confused Americans by saying that had been in their country for a fortnight and had been to Chicago twice was sore tempted to add that I would remain for a sennight.... but that might have contravened the Geneva convention...

I'm a 17 year-old Canadian, and yet I am very familiar with "as a rule", and everyone I know would get what I was saying, were I to use it, even if they weren't familiar with the history of the phrase.

Hence, I think that "as a rule" is still an easily understood phrase, and one that is still used, not infrequently, in North America if not in Europe.

EDITED to remove some embarrassingly arrogant statements, which, fortunately for my humility, are still visible in the below quote.