Spoken Phrases With ‘Pretty’

You probably already know that ‘pretty‘ is a word which is similar to ‘attractive’ or ‘nice to look at.’ But how else is it used?

In terms of it being an adjective, you might hear these expressions:

Not just a pretty face
This is used with a bit of humour, to mean that someone has more than just good looks:

She’s a manager and a black belt in karate, so she’s not just a pretty face.

Not a pretty sight
This is also used with a touch of humour. Imagine your mate Phil comes home at 5 am after drinking the whole night:

Wow, he wasn’t a pretty sight, I can tell you..

‘Pretty’ can also be used as an adverb:

Pretty Much
– Are you tired?
– Yeah, pretty much.

Here the meaning is ‘almost yes’ – in reality, you can take it as a ‘yes’.

Other examples:

• It’s hard to tell which is different, they’re pretty much the same.
• I eat pretty much everything.
• I like pretty much all their CDs.
• This little gadget can do pretty much everything.

When your boss finishes a meeting, he might say:

Ok, that’s pretty much it, I think..

Pretty can also mean ‘quite’ or ‘fairly’ or indeed ‘very’. In some cases it might depend on the context and how the speaker says the word.

For example, someone from Melbourne says:

“Today it was pretty hot.”

If it was 44C, then we can guess they mean ‘very hot.’ If it was 22C, then it means ‘fairly’ or certainly ‘hotter than usual.’

How are you?

Often people say “I’m pretty good” as a common way to respond to this question.

See if you can pay attention to the ways this word is used this week 🙂