Depends on how you say it and in which context.
A shrug and a “pretty good” = acceptable, not worth complaining about.
A slow grin first or it being said loudly = better than good, great.
Although this depends on how emotive the speaker is.
if someone shrugs with pretty good
or shrugs with good
to me the former is still better than the latter.
I don't see a way for pretty good to mean less than good
Wow! Pretty good!
Vs
That was pretty good, but....
My Bad-to-Good spectrum would be:
Bad
Pretty bad
Fairly bad
Fairly good
Pretty good
Good
I have to say my bad-to-good ratio is probably:
Pretty bad
Bad
Not good
Ok <- Neutral
Not bad
Pretty good
Good
Which I now realize is a little weird to have "ok" be neutral, with not bad/good on either side of it.
And this?
For me, it all depends on tone of voice, and what word is emphasized. “Pretty good!” generally means better than expected. “Pretty good” is like “Good, but…”
Neither, really. I use it to mean "more than expected". Like, if my kids insist I watch a cartoon with them, and I enjoy it, i'd say it's "pretty good". Or if a coworker said something awful about a customer, I might say the comment was "pretty mean".
This seems like the right take. It's based on expectations.
it can mean "decent, better than I expected"
or
"good, but not exceptional or memorable"
Worse.
See also: "Pretty close"
Ha, exactly.
Not many options for a little less than good without people getting offended.
"Kinda good" or "almost good" definitely would upset people.
I'm British
Therefore it ranges from "utter fucking shite but I'll say it a different way" to "moderately utter bollocks but bearable" right up to "yeah it's alright"
Generally better, but it's contextual. Someone saying with a surprised tone "It was pretty good" implies that it's better than good and better than expected, and that the person might not have expected it to be good. Someone saying with a muted or dull "It was good..." would be worse than "pretty good" and implies that it was acceptable but disappointing or mediocre.
I think for me it's generally the same but I'm not a native English speaker so idk lol
"Hey that was actually a pretty good performance for a beginner!" vs. "Well that was also pretty good..."
Depends on the tone.
Permanently Deleted
Pretty good is less than good.
I think it depends on what expectations were.
You and your friends make a horror movie and it's better than you thought: Hey, that's pretty good.
Steven Spielberg makes a mediocre horror movie: It was pretty good.
I think I use 'pretty good' to pretend I have an opinion about something, rather than it being a moral judgement:
How was the film? Pretty good vs.
How was the film? Good.I do the same. I don't have an established opinion on everything, and it can take some time to form one, so if someone presses me for an answer to, say, "What did you think of that movie?" shortly after I've left the cinema, it's always "pretty good."
Intonation can carry the meaning.
In the UK, pretty good can mean anything from "not as bad as I thought it would be" to just "OK" or "pretty good! :D"
I see “pretty good” to be better than just “good”. It seems obvious to me, considering one is only good but the other is pretty good.
Depends on tone.
I can't imagine how "pretty good" could mean "better than good." Most of the examples posted here are talking about how something relates to your expectations, but that's not the question. Yes, "pretty good" is often used to describe something that is better than expected, but that doesn't make it better than "good."
For example, it doesn't make sense to say "$50 is good, but $100 is pretty good!"
I do think "pretty good" is often used as an understated way to say that something is very good, e.g. "Yeah, Messi is pretty good at soccer." However, that's a play on the actual meaning of the phrase, and should not be construed as the actual meaning.
It would totally depend on my enthusiasm. More often, though, it means worse.
Worse: "Yeah, it's pretty good. But..." <- Talking about a game or a movie
Better: "Whoa! This is pretty good!" <- Food!
Not necessarily worse, but more ambiguous than if I say something is good.
Yea for me "pretty good" is an estimate around good. Like using -ish. I don't want to say it was good but it was around good.
Worse.
I always thought pretty good was better than good. Honestly surprised to find out I may have been wrong my entire life.
Good
Pretty good
Really/Very good
Extremely good
Great
Pretty great
Really/very great
Extremely great
Awesome
...
Better
Good>pretty good
The word good is a stronger affirmative imo
It's not just good, it's good enough!
pretty good is less good than good
Worse. Sometimes just a little worse than good, sometimes it's medium or negative but you're just trying to be nice. "How did you like the liver and onions I cooked for you?". "It was pretty good."
I learned about it the other day. Apparently native English speakers know than non native use it in a more positive way then they do
When we say something the words have more impact than the word itself.
Huh?
Pretty good is not at good as good.
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Same as good but it has limited impact
Slightly worse
Generally, for me, it means something less than entirely "good."
The times I'm most likely to use it are when I'm finding minor fault with something - "Well... it was pretty good, but..." or when something is better than I expected, but not quite fully good - "Hey! That was actually pretty good!"
