Hi!
It’s not clear for me the meaning of “pretty much”. For Example:
His homework was pretty much finished.
I looked up it, but I got two meanings:
-Almost, nearly, approximately
-To some degree.
Can anyone help me about it?
Thanks.
approximately
Used in spoken or informal written English
From Pretty Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com :
10.fairly or moderately: Her work was pretty good.
11.quite; very: The wind blew pretty hard.
“pretty much” is similar but not the same as “pretty good” or “pretty hard” in the above definition because you could not take out the the “pretty” in a “pretty much” phrase and still have a good sentence.
In other words,
"His homework was pretty much finished. " is ok, but "His homework was much finished. " is not ok.
On the other hand
“Her work was pretty good.” and "Her work was good. " are both ok.
“pretty much” is a set phrase on its own.
Of course, you’re right. I just wanted to add the other usage.
The meaning of “pretty good” depends on intonation, is it not? And of “pretty much” too?
All adjectives and other types of modifiers can vary their meaning according to intonation. This is nothing new. However there is usually a basic meaning that you presume to be true without any other evidence to the contrary. In the case of “pretty much” the meaning is “approximately” or “more or less”
Pretty much - Almost, approximately
In Spanish I think the term "bastante,’ is used in this way.
For example;
Pretty Easy - Bastante Facil
Pretty Difficult - Bastante dificil
Interesting that I just used the term, “pretty much” in my last post, so we use it often, at least here in the states.