• LemmyLefty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Kafanzi Max. Praetor@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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

  • pturn1@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    My Bad-to-Good spectrum would be:

    Bad

    Pretty bad

    Fairly bad

    Fairly good

    Pretty good

    Good

      • pturn1@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        “It’s not bad, but it’s still pretty bad” is a phrase I can see myself saying. Not sure about the other way round - doesn’t really work for me, but to each their own…

        • can
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I see it as similar to “very bad”, which would be worse than just “bad”.

    • cujo
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      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.

  • weew@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    it can mean “decent, better than I expected”

    or

    “good, but not exceptional or memorable”

    • MedicPigBabySaver@voxpop.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ha, exactly.

      Not many options for a little less than good without people getting offended.

      “Kinda good” or “almost good” definitely would upset people.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    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”.

  • I_Am_Jacks_____@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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.

  • freamon@endlesstalk.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    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”

  • Sylver@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • tko@tkohhh.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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.