How to Use Pretty Much, Pretty Sure [Pretty as an Adverb in English]

Pretty is likely one of the very first words that you learned when you first

started to study English.

So you absolutely know what it means when you hear sentences.

Like that's a pretty bouquet of flowers or what a pretty dress.

But what exactly does that word mean when you hear English speakers

say pretty much, I'm pretty sure,

I'm pretty disappointed in his response.

How does a word that means attractive or beautiful work in those

sentences? The simple answer is: it doesn't.

When we look at sentences, like that's a pretty bouquet of flowers.

The word pretty is being used as an adjective. And yes,

it is an alternative to words like attractive or beautiful. But in phrases,

like pretty much, I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty disappointed,

we're not using the word pretty as an

adjective instead,

it's being used as an adverb and because the function of the

word changes, the meaning of it changes as well. In fact,

as an adverb, the word pretty has multiple possible meanings.

If you're here for the very first time and you don't already know,

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,

this is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English and this Confident English lesson on how to

accurately use pretty as an adverb,

you're going to learn four different possible meanings so that you understand it

and feel comfortable using this word in your own English conversations.

Plus at the end,

I'll share tips on how you can easily identify which

meaning someone else is using when they use the word pretty as an

adverb.

[Inaudible].

To get us started,

let's look at a few of the challenges of using pretty as an adverb.

Sometimes when we hear the word pretty in a sentence,

it doesn't seem to add any meaning at all.

And at other times the use of the word pretty as an adverb can raise

questions about the speaker's intention.

Sometimes it's used to intensify,

meaning like putting a strong underline under a word and bringing focus to

it. Other times, the word weakens the meaning,

all of this depends on the speaker's intention. Thankfully,

we're going to address these challenges in our lesson today, before we do,

I want to share one piece of good news,

the word order never changes when we use the

word pretty as an adverb,

it is always followed by an adjective or

another adverb. I know I'm using a lot of English grammar jargon.

So let me give you two clear examples so that we can see this word order

example, number one, he completed his homework pretty quickly.

So I've got the adverb pretty followed by another adverb quickly

example. Number two, he thought the homework was pretty easy. Again,

the adverb pretty followed by an adjective easy.

Now that we've got that,

let's get into the four different possible meanings of the word pretty as an

adverb. Number one is pretty intensifies.

English speakers can use the word pretty to replace words like very,

or really, for example,

we had a pretty productive discussion in the meeting today.

My daughter's pretty talented when it comes to music,

she can pick up any instrument and start playing the meeting,

went pretty smoothly in all three of those examples,

I'm using the word pretty as an adverb to intensify as a replacement for the

word very. And there's a positive focus.

I can use pretty with a negative focus as well. For example,

that was a pretty horrible thing to say. I was pretty worried.

My son would get sick,

listen carefully to some of the differences in my tone and intonation between

the positive and negative focus. That was a pretty productive meeting today.

I'm pretty worried about my son. What do you notice?

I tend to use a higher tone and rising intonation when I have

that positive focus, that was a pretty productive meeting today.

I'm pretty worried about my son.

That was a pretty horrible thing to say. When I have a negative focus,

you can hear it in my tone of voice and with my

falling intonation.

Now let's move on to the second meaning of the word pretty as an adverb.

And here's where it gets a little tricky.

I just told you that pretty can be used to intensify,

but it can also be used to weaken.

English speakers will use pretty to soften an

adjective or an adverb,

just like we can use pretty to replace very,

or really it can also replace words like slightly,

fairly, or quite, for example,

I'm pretty certain Tom will be here on time.

In that example, I could also say I'm fairly certain,

I'm quite certain I'm softening my certainty.

I'm weakening it. Another example,

Michael should be here pretty soon.

Now that we know that pretty can be used to intensify and weaken,

let's go on to number three, pretty approximates.

We use it to express that something is more or less or

almost as we describe it. For example,

that's pretty much all I have to say on this issue.

Considering the housing market, I think their offer is pretty fair.

Are you finished with your report? Pretty much.

In all of those examples,

I may not have exactly the offer I want,

or I may not be a hundred percent completely done with my

report, but I'm close. I'm almost there.

Or it's almost the offer I want.

It's pretty fair or I'm pretty much done.

And lastly pretty is unsure. In fact,

when we combine pretty with the word 'sure,' it means there's uncertainty.

For example, I'm pretty sure we made the right choice.

I'm not a hundred percent sure there's a little bit of uncertainty there,

but I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure we sent a reminder email to everyone.

We're pretty sure that's the right number to call.

Before we get into how you can identify what meaning a speaker intends,

let's pause here on this last example of

pretty sure being uncertain and talk about intonation.

I'm going to say those three example sentences again,

and I want you to listen for how I'm using my intonation with those words.

Pretty sure. Okay. I'm pretty sure we made the right choice.

I'm pretty sure we sent a reminder email to everyone.

We're pretty sure that's the right email to call.

What do you notice about my intonation when I say pretty

sure am I going up or down?

I'm pretty sure we made the right choice.

I'm pretty sure we emailed everybody.

We're pretty sure that's the right number.

When we use that rising intonation,

it also brings that meaning or an indication of

uncertainty. So in these examples,

not only are we using those words,

pretty sure to indicate uncertainty.

We're also using our voice to add to that meaning now that you have

four different ways to use pretty as an adverb,

let's talk about how you can be sure of what

someone else means when they use it. Are they using it to intensify,

weaken, approximate, or indicate uncertainty?

Tip number one is listen for that intonation.

Are they using rising intonation in ways that indicate some level of

uncertainty? In addition to that, intonation,

you can also use visual cues like facial expressions and body language.

Tip number two, consider the speaker's emotion.

Is the speaker upset, excited, sarcastic, or happy?

What do you sense when they're speaking? Of course,

we can also use the adjectives that follow.

If someone says that was a pretty horrible thing to say,

because we're using the word horrible.

We immediately know that there's a negative tone there,

but if someone says I'm pretty excited about my vacation. Again,

we can use that as an indication of using pretty to

intensify and indicate a positive feeling.

Tip number three is analyze the context.

This is something my Fluency School students are definitely familiar with.

When you consider context,

what that means is you're not just listening to that one word or even that one

sentence, but you're looking at the whole picture.

So you have to consider all the other sentences that were said

prior to the sentence that includes that word pretty.

All of that together will give you a clear picture of the speaker's meaning

to finish this lesson today on how to accurately use pretty as an adverb.

I'd love to finish with a question.

I'm curious if you had an aha moment while listening now,

if you're not sure about that phrase,

an aha moment is a moment of clarity.

Or when you realize something that you were unsure of

before,

perhaps you've heard English speakers use pretty in one of these ways and you

never really understood why they were using that word.

So if you've had an aha moment after this lesson, I'd love to hear about it.

The best place for you to share is in the comments below.

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