美國好個P，英國好個球

不好意思，玩了一下標題黨，騙幾下點擊。這其實是一篇關於學英語的文章，講的是“pretty good”的意思到底是好還是不好。


病人來複診，病情挺穩定的。我跟他說“You are doing pretty good”，所以我們就繼續原來的治療，不改變藥物或者劑量了。病人很友好地跟我探討，“你說我“doing pretty good”，你的意思說我其實情況不是太好嗎（not doing so good）?”我說，不是啊，我的意思是你病情挺穩定，挺好的。他說，在英語裏，Pretty good的意思是不怎麽好，而且本來就期待就不高的意思。他試著用了一種有點兒輕蔑的口氣說了“pretty good”這個詞。我說，是嗎，我一直以為Pretty good的意思是Good或者Very Good呢。而且，這還取決於音調，如果發音成“Preeeety good”，不就是很好了嗎。他說，也不是，雖然Preeeety good是好一些了，但是還是因為期待不高所以才覺得還可以啦。

一邊工作一邊學英語倒也不錯，我跟他繼續探討：語言還跟文化有關係。你看，我來自中國。在中國文化裏，有時候我們不象在美國文化裏那麽誇張，我們說好就是好了，甚至很好了。而在美國，good的意思是很一般，very good才算有點兒好，great，excellent，fantastic才算真好。還有，我們中國人喜歡謙虛，特別是對自己的好處和能力謙虛，有十分好隻說七分。你是我的病人，所以我在評價療效時不知不覺地就有點兒謙虛上了，沒有說great，而是用了一個“Pretty good”。

我們這些上完大學來到美國的人，英語表達在一些細節上還真是有很多需要不斷了解的知識，不僅僅是個有口音的問題。我們想當初學英語的時候，是通過單詞的中英翻譯學習的。Good就是好，哪裏知道有那麽多種不同的Good——“excellent, well done, very good, good, quite good”，而且這不同的Good的程度跟我們直觀感覺到的還不一樣。這種詞語細微的差別，是很難通過背單詞學到的。特別是還有一些反諷之類的表達，以及一些新創詞匯和表達方式，使我們這些外國人的英語很難講得地道。

為了進一步學習，我上網查了一下，發現“Pretty good”英式英語跟美式英語還不同呢。在英式英語裏，Not bad，Good，Pretty good都還是挺好的，而在美式英語裏這些表達都是不夠好的意思。看來英國人比較低調謙虛，美國人比較高調誇張。但是，也有人說“Quite good”在美式英語中是挺好的，而在英式英語中意思是不怎麽好。 我們生活在美國，還是以美式英語為準吧。隻是美式英語也不單純，比如白人英語跟非裔英語得用法和發音就相差很遠。

真的很複雜，頭都要大了。能不能這麽記：在美國，Pretty good就是“好個P”，在英國，“Quite good”就是“好個Q”？。編個順口溜就是“美國好個P，英國好個球”，就是說，在美國說“pertty good”，和在英國說“quite good”都是不怎麽好得意思。這個順口溜就算是“take home message”吧，記住了它就不會忘記Pretty good和quite good在美式和英語裏到底是好還是不好了。

下麵選擇一些我查到的內容貼在下麵，都是一些網友的有關討論，也不一定很權威，有興趣的自己去看，我就不翻譯了。


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]

幹嘛用這些搞不清楚的字，幹脆用fine，不就結了。fine， fine， fine 用幾個，看fine的情況而定。