Nice and Interesting for a Small fortune which is Pretty good.

[Carol]

Steve wrote:
> Well, not exactly English 101, though that is certainly true, more
accurately in the context of the discussion, it is Translation 101.

Carol responds:

Right. 
> 
> The underlying question is, how does a foreign translator translate
'pretty good'? "You did a pretty good job".
> 
> Literally-
> 
> 'You did a beautifully good job.'
> 
> 'You did a beautiful job.'
> 
> 'You did a good job.'
> 
> 'You did a pretty job.'
> 
> or using some other unforeseen interpretation of the statement? <snip>

Carol:
The literal translation would be, "You did a beautiful [or attractive]
good job"--easy to see why a translator unfamiliar with "pretty" as an
intensive adverb would be confused.

Steve:
> In these case, of course, it doesn't mean 'beautiful' are all, it
means very. 'That is very far off.' 'That is a very nice car.' Again,
the sentences work just fine without the 'intensifier'. 'That is far
off.' 'That is a nice car.' <snip>

Carol:
Here I would partially disagree with you. Despite their name,
intensive adverbs don't always intensify. Occasionally, they diminish
(as in "pretty" or "fairly"). "Pretty good" doesn't mean "very good."
It means fairly good, sort of good, kind of good, not bad. A pretty
good job of writing an essay would earn you a B-; a very good job
would earn you an A. (An exceptional job would earn you an A+.) But I
agree that the intensifier can be left off without *significantly*
altering the meaning. We can always use "fair" for "pretty good,"
"good" alone for "good," and "excellent" for "very good." (Editors
will often prune adverbs, which is not to say that they're never
useful and should always be cut!)

Steve:
> 
> 'Take the micky' wasn't an expression I immediately understood.
> 
> And in the UK version of the book, Fred says 'keep your pecker up',
meaning 'take heart' or 'keep your spirits up'. In the US, that has a
whole different meaning. But I can't imagine what the expression means
to a Russian or an Italian, or how they would interpret it. 

Carol responds:

I'll leave that one to zanooda or Alla! But I noticed that the
Scholastic edition of HBP (apparently) got one of those British terms
wrong. Peeves, inciting the House-Elves to fight, yells, "Stick your
fingers up his nosey, draw his cork and pull his earsies" (p.
420--"Elf Tails, about two pages before the end of the chapter).
Shouldn't that be "conk," meaning "nose"? *Is* it a typo and does it
appear in the Bloomsbury edition as well? If it's not a typo and
"cork" is correct, what does it mean?

Carol, who also stumbled over "take the mickey" out of someone but
thinks it means "tease"