This week’s column will answer two queries:
1. In this quote by Britt Nicole, “We get so worried about being pretty. Let’s be pretty kind. Pretty funny. Pretty smart. Pretty strong” does the word ‘pretty’ have different meanings? Can ‘pretty’ be used to describe men? (Preethi Selvi, Salem)
The word ‘pretty’ in the quote has two different meanings. In the first part of the quote, in the phrase ‘being pretty’ the word functions as an adjective and has these meanings: attractive, pleasant to the eye, and good-looking. In the second part of the quote, in the phrases ‘pretty kind’, ‘pretty funny’, ‘pretty smart’ and ‘pretty strong’, the word functions as an adverb and has these meanings: fairly, quite, very.
The adjective ‘pretty’ has many different meanings. The most common meaning is ‘pleasing or attractive’. When something is pleasing to the eye we describe it as pretty. The word is used with these nouns: girl, face, woman, blonde, flower, garden, room, picture, tune, etc. It is common to use the adjective ‘pretty’ with the nouns girl and boy. Look at these examples:
Well, pretty boy, we all will attend your birthday party. Let’s have a blast!
All admired this pretty boy for his wonderful performance.
It is quite uncommon to use the word ‘pretty’ with ‘man’. For example, the search for the term ‘pretty man’ in the British National Corpus yielded only one sentence whereas the search for the term ‘pretty woman’ resulted in 48 sentences.
I suddenly realised that she was a pretty woman.
He saw a rather pretty woman, not very young, with an air of good breeding that somehow attracted him.
Certain adjectives collocate with ‘woman/women’ but not with ‘man/men’. Though the adjective ‘beautiful’ is not commonly used to describe a man, there are many sentences with the phrase ‘beautiful man’ that are listed in BNC.
2. Recently, I came across the phrase ‘The more will follow’ in a letter published in a newspaper. Can the word ‘more’ be used as a noun? (Tharcius Fernando, Chennai)
Yes, ‘more’ can be used as a noun. When it is used as an adjective (the comparative form of many and much), it precedes a noun as in the examples below:
Aldeesh needs more money to buy the Li Ning badminton racquet.
The students need more time to complete the assignment.
As a noun the word has these meanings: an additional or great quantity, amount, or number, something of greater importance, a greater number of persons, etc. Here are examples:
She promised to give me more.
The revised version of English Blues costs more than the first edition.
More will take the GATE exam this year than last year.
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