smilehumanbeing
Does “A pretty beautiful girl” mean “a quite beautiful girl” ? I don’t mean a pretty(pretty means beautiful) beautiful girl.
Jun 1, 2022 1:00 AM
Answers · 5
3
Yes, it can also mean "very, rather" and so on. You would say: quite a beautiful girl. Hope this helps! :)
June 1, 2022
2
This usage of "pretty" is typical of spoken English, especially American. The meaning depends on the stress and intonation, but more often than not, it means something like "very", "fairly", "quite", or "rather". Note that it does *not* have the literal meaning of "good looking"; in fact, we can say that someone is "pretty ugly" (i.e. rather ugly).
June 1, 2022
1
Most people would avoid using the phrase "pretty beautiful" because of the implied confusion as to what 'pretty' would mean.
June 2, 2022
1
Yes! “Pretty” can have the same meaning as “very” in this example.
June 1, 2022
1
To my understaing it could only mean the first A pretty (To a high degree, fairly) beautiful woman. For pretty is attractive without being beautiful.
June 1, 2022
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!