Skyhighatrist

Don’t worry, I already know I’m wrong. The graph on this post clearly shows that I’m wrong and in the minority. But that doesn’t really change how I interpret it. I almost used Pretty Bad as another example that I think many would have agreed with, but didn’t end up doing that.

See, I don’t agree with this analysis. It works fine for your pretty straight example, but that’s because Straight is already as straight as it can be. Something can’t be extra straight. But if I were to say something is pretty cheap, I would actually mean that it’s cheaper than I would mean if I just said it was cheap. Generally when I use pretty to qualify something, it’s in relation to my preconceived notion about something, and that’s typically made obvious by the tone of my voice as I say it.

You know, I went into this movie with low expectations, but it’s actually pretty good.

but if I had just used good in that statement, it would be indicating nearly the same thing, but with a little less emphasis.

I’ve always considered pretty good to be a positive modifier on good, making it a little better than good. Not much, but better nonetheless. I’ve never really understood why other people consider it to be worse than good.

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