Pretty ˈprɪti Hard Adverb Game Good Explain Find

• the game was pretty good.
• i'm pretty sure i'll be going.
• it's pretty hard to explain.
• i'm going to have to find a new apartment pretty soon.

pretty

1. to some extent; fairly
• The game was pretty good.
• I'm pretty sure I'll be going.
• It's pretty hard to explain.
• I'm going to have to find a new apartment pretty soon.
2. very
• That performance was pretty impressive.
• Things are looking pretty good!
• The idea sounds pretty cool.
• We were pretty disappointed with the quality of the food.

Extra Examples

• It came at the end of a pretty miserable week.
• Flying those planes was pretty hard work.
3. to be in a good situation, especially when others are not
• With profits at record levels, the company’s certainly sitting pretty this year.
4. almost; almost completely
• One dog looks pretty much like another to me.
• He goes out pretty well every night.
• The first stage is pretty near finished.

Word Origin

• Old English prættig; related to Middle Dutch pertich ‘brisk, clever’, obsolete Dutch prettig ‘humorous, sporty’, from a West Germanic base meaning ‘trick’. The sense development ‘deceitful, cunning, clever, skilful, admirable, pleasing, nice’ has parallels in adjectives such as canny, fine, nice, etc.