Pretty good

[riviera]

I have just started a new career as a journalist. I have a mentor who has reviewed my first piece of writing and her feedback is that it is pretty good. I thought pretty good would be better than good but it does not seem to be? Does it depend on the context?.

Could you please expand? Cheers

[bhaisahab]

I have just started a new career as a journalist. I have a mentor who has reviewed my first piece of writing and her feedback is that it is pretty good. I thought pretty good would be better than good but it does not seem to be? Does it depend on the context?.

Could you please expand? Cheers

"Pretty good" could have a range of meanings from "OK" through to "good". You should ask her to clarify what she means.

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck in your chosen field.

(a) Journalists can do a lot of good -- or a lot of harm. I am sure that you will do a lot of good!

(2) Here in the United States, I believe that "pretty good" means something like "not bad."

(a) Perhaps your mentor did not want to nitpick (find every little mistake), so "pretty good" could mean:

"As a beginner, you made some mistakes, but -- in general -- you did an acceptable job."

(3) I do believe, however, that if a wife asks about the quality of her cooking, a husband had better not reply,

"It's pretty good."

[riviera]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck in your chosen field.

(a) Journalists can do a lot of good -- or a lot of harm. I am sure that you will do a lot of good!

(2) Here in the United States, I believe that "pretty good" means something like "not bad."

(a) Perhaps your mentor did not want to nitpick (find every little mistake), so "pretty good" could mean:

"As a beginner, you made some mistakes, but -- in general -- you did an acceptable job."

(3) I do believe, however, that if a wife asks about the quality of her cooking, a husband had better not reply,

"It's pretty good."

Thank you! I am planning to do as much good as I can. I am training to be an investigative journalist :)

yeah, she had some comments obviously. But I think she means that in general is OK for a first job!

[BobSmith]

[AmE not a teacher]

I often use "pretty good" to mean "it's surprisingly very good".

friend: So, was the movie boring, like you thought it would be?
me: No actually, it's pretty good!