美国好个P，英国好个球

不好意思，玩了一下标题党，骗几下点击。这其实是一篇关于学英语的文章，讲的是“pretty good”的意思到底是好还是不好。


病人来复诊，病情挺稳定的。我跟他说“You are doing pretty good”，所以我们就继续原来的治疗，不改变药物或者剂量了。病人很友好地跟我探讨，“你说我“doing pretty good”，你的意思说我其实情况不是太好吗（not doing so good）?”我说，不是啊，我的意思是你病情挺稳定，挺好的。他说，在英语里，Pretty good的意思是不怎么好，而且本来就期待就不高的意思。他试着用了一种有点儿轻蔑的口气说了“pretty good”这个词。我说，是吗，我一直以为Pretty good的意思是Good或者Very Good呢。而且，这还取决于音调，如果发音成“Preeeety good”，不就是很好了吗。他说，也不是，虽然Preeeety good是好一些了，但是还是因为期待不高所以才觉得还可以啦。

一边工作一边学英语倒也不错，我跟他继续探讨：语言还跟文化有关系。你看，我来自中国。在中国文化里，有时候我们不象在美国文化里那么夸张，我们说好就是好了，甚至很好了。而在美国，good的意思是很一般，very good才算有点儿好，great，excellent，fantastic才算真好。还有，我们中国人喜欢谦虚，特别是对自己的好处和能力谦虚，有十分好只说七分。你是我的病人，所以我在评价疗效时不知不觉地就有点儿谦虚上了，没有说great，而是用了一个“Pretty good”。

我们这些上完大学来到美国的人，英语表达在一些细节上还真是有很多需要不断了解的知识，不仅仅是个有口音的问题。我们想当初学英语的时候，是通过单词的中英翻译学习的。Good就是好，哪里知道有那么多种不同的Good——“excellent, well done, very good, good, quite good”，而且这不同的Good的程度跟我们直观感觉到的还不一样。这种词语细微的差别，是很难通过背单词学到的。特别是还有一些反讽之类的表达，以及一些新创词汇和表达方式，使我们这些外国人的英语很难讲得地道。

为了进一步学习，我上网查了一下，发现“Pretty good”英式英语跟美式英语还不同呢。在英式英语里，Not bad，Good，Pretty good都还是挺好的，而在美式英语里这些表达都是不够好的意思。看来英国人比较低调谦虚，美国人比较高调夸张。但是，也有人说“Quite good”在美式英语中是挺好的，而在英式英语中意思是不怎么好。 我们生活在美国，还是以美式英语为准吧。只是美式英语也不单纯，比如白人英语跟非裔英语得用法和发音就相差很远。

真的很复杂，头都要大了。能不能这么记：在美国，Pretty good就是“好个P”，在英国，“Quite good”就是“好个Q”？。编个顺口溜就是“美国好个P，英国好个球”，就是说，在美国说“pertty good”，和在英国说“quite good”都是不怎么好得意思。这个顺口溜就算是“take home message”吧，记住了它就不会忘记Pretty good和quite good在美式和英语里到底是好还是不好了。

下面选择一些我查到的内容贴在下面，都是一些网友的有关讨论，也不一定很权威，有兴趣的自己去看，我就不翻译了。


1.
Question: Good or Pretty Good, which is stronger?
Answer: Good is stronger.

Pretty good can make it sound like you are surprised that it is good. It can also mean "only a little bit good".

If you want a strong compliment, say that something is "very good" or "excellent".

2.
Re: pretty good? very good?

Originally Posted by fivejedjon
Note that for speakers of BrE, pretty' can, with the right intonation, mean 'very'.

Britsh understatement can sometimes surprise speakers of AmE. Some of my American trainees were very disappointed if I told them that their work was 'not bad' or 'pretty good'. Sometimes when I said that, they would ask, "What was wrong with it?". They had not recognised the praise in my words.

I think, generally speaking, the same applies to Canadians. Although if you say not bad you have to indicate with your tone and usually facial expression that you mean very good. Here not bad can be easily be interpreted as "it wasn't complete crap" depending on how it's said.

3A.
To: My fellow English learners

(1) Be VERY careful before you use the word "quite."
MRS. JONES: Do you like the dinner? I spent 5 hours cooking it.
AN AMERICAN: It is quite good.
(Mrs. Jones smiled.)
A BRITISH PERSON : It is quite good.
(Mrs. Jones started to cry.)
***

When an American says "quite good," it means very good.
When a British person says "quite good," it means NOT very good!!!
***

This is NOT my idea. I learned about this from a book written by a man whowas once the editor of London's legendary newspaper "The Times," which (many, many years ago) was the most powerful newspaper in the world. Alas! It no longer is.)


3B.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying that it means "not very good" in BrE. However, it is quite common for "It's quite good" to be followed by "but..." and we all know what that means!

It's quite good but it could have done with less salt.
It was quite good but I preferred the one we saw last week.
You're quite attractive (unspoken "but you could be more attractive"!)

[yijibang]

干嘛用这些搞不清楚的字，干脆用fine，不就结了。fine， fine， fine 用几个，看fine的情况而定。