Talk:pretty much

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Latest comment: 2 years ago by Backinstadiums in topic pretty much of the time
Jump to navigation Jump to search

British citations[edit]

It's interesting that all three citations are British English, since I see this phrase as fairly characteristically American. Certainly in the stand-alone form (as a sort of interjection) it doesn't seem to occur in BrE. Equinox 20:49, 17 February 2015 (UTC)Reply

pretty much of the time[edit]

This occurs in a famous passage from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time." It's never seemed grammatical to me, though. It can't be an adverb here, either. Equinox 01:35, 8 August 2016 (UTC)Reply

@Equinox: OED pretty : adjective vs adverb --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:55, 15 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Backinstadiums: Yes, I know what an adjective is and what an adverb is. Your link doesn't explain the unusual sentence that I quote above, does it? Equinox

pretty well[edit]

Pretty well is a variant --Backinstadiums (talk) 09:39, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

also (British English pretty nearly) and (North American English pretty near) --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:47, 24 November 2020 (UTC)Reply