I. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sweet/pretty/lovely melody (= pleasant )
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The pianist played a sweet melody.
fairly/pretty normal
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His family all seem pretty normal.
lovely/pretty/beautiful
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They admired the lovely flowers in the garden.
pretty good idea
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The police have a pretty good idea who did it.
pretty lucky informal (= lucky, but not extremely lucky )
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We were pretty lucky with the weather on this holiday.
pretty sure
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I’m pretty sure it was the same woman who called the office last week.
pretty/beautiful/handsome etc
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Her face was beautiful in the morning light.
pretty/fairly useless
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The book is pretty useless for today's students.
pretty/picturesque
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There are many pretty villages nearby.
quite/pretty cold
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It’s going to be quite cold today.
rather/pretty expensive (= more expensive than you expect )
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I think £1000 for a bed is rather expensive.
rather/pretty/quite/fairly unlikely
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I may have thrown it away by mistake, but that’s pretty unlikely.
very/extremely/quite/pretty etc clever
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Lucy is quite clever and does well at school.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bad
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Everybody tries to be as cool as possible but actually what you're feeling is something pretty bad .
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Their only reference point for retail and high density residential are pretty bad examples.
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But by yesterday, it was pretty bad .
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I could see everybody was feeling pretty bad .
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It must have been pretty bad , for Mrs Whitfield to change like this.
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Well, your car is in pretty bad shape.
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He decided that school was not somewhere he would like to go at this point because he looked pretty bad .
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Frankly I feel pretty bad for Mary Jane, honestly I do.
big
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These things are pretty big and it's a shame to waste such a large resource of petrochemicals.
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I had made a pretty big mistake in how I handled it.
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Masklin was used to labels in the Store, but this was pretty big even by big label standards.
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That was a pretty big play.
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It's pretty big too because we've been talking about women.
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It was a pretty big brownie.
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I can't see too much of it, cos it's still dark, but it looks pretty big .
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Some of them were pretty big .
clear
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He said something - I forget what, but it was pretty clear he didn't trust me.
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And there are still pretty clear task responsibilities.
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In my treatment I had, I thought, made it pretty clear what Gary was like.
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The Republican intentions with Medicare are pretty clear .
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It is pretty clear that the reason Z fails in Z6 is that 6 is a composite integer.
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Anyway, it will be pretty clear .
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A flower or two, but apart from that she made it pretty clear she preferred the money direct.
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Most of those answers are pretty clear .
close
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In speed terms the RapidCad is pretty close to the theoretical speed of a 486 without burst I/O and cache controller.
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It's pretty close to the real thing.
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Donna consulted the directions on the sheet of paper and realized that they must be pretty close to their destination.
good
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It looks pretty good fun, driving that thing.
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Tango is a pretty good thing to play.
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You're pretty good at getting on with people, aren't you?
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Clinton and Gore have a pretty good tale to tell.
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That might be a pretty good arrangement, just to help make associations.
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In reality, the buyer thought Harry's original price was pretty good .
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People smart enough to plunge into bond funds last year are probably feeling pretty good .
hard
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Said he was as stiff as a ramrod and would get nowhere, but he's pretty hard on people anyway.
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If they were captured by the Border Security Forces, well, it was pretty hard to extract information from a camel.
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The thrill of coming out of Oxford Circus tube and seeing a pile of me at the news-stand was pretty hard to beat.
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Tiger Woods is the elephant standing at the first tee, and it's pretty hard to ignore him.
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That hit me pretty hard , because I don't feel right about it anyway!
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So that makes it pretty hard to stamp out.
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It is pretty hard to see how such mechanical interactions can give rise to consciousness.
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The Highway Patrol was working pretty hard .
little
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The entire menu is portioned up into pretty little bowls; go and collect what you want and pay at the 611.
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All kinds of pretty little girls were cutting down the darkening street.
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Inchbad was pleased to see Fenella, pretty little thing, approach them.
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Alpinestars' singer, Glyn Thomas, is sitting in a pub in Fulham and yawning his pretty little head off.
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Sandi and Mrs Fanning found themselves in a pretty little parlor with a couch and lamps and a stack of perfumed towels.
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She was like a clever, pretty little fox.
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This pretty little fern prefers a well-draining site.
obvious
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It's pretty obvious that Kurt Cobain has been running on reserve tanks for most of this Euro-jaunt.
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They were pretty obvious in the old days.
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These warnings aside-and they're pretty obvious-don't hold back.
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That's pretty obvious ....
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But it's pretty obvious where that ridiculous attraction came from.
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It was pretty obvious he made the right decision.
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It seems pretty obvious they both attend the same origami evening class.
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Which was pretty obvious , really.
strong
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Elephants, by all accounts, were pretty strong too.
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When a person is willing to do that, he must have a pretty strong will.
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It looks pretty strong stuff - useful like.
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And apparently as holy symbols go it's. pretty strong .
sure
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A glance at the map made Charles pretty sure that that gun was now in the Thames.
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Marine scientists were pretty sure a coral reef, like any complex ecosystem, must be assembled in the correct order.
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But she was pretty sure Uncle Albert would find it interesting.
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Paul was pretty sure he did.
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I was pretty sure it must have been Maggie, but it would be nice to make sure.
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If they weren't there, they were pretty sure to be in Woolworths.
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I was pretty sure Dilip would find the dang about as interesting as mud.
tough
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This combination offers a lightweight, yet pretty tough material which doesn't fee too synthetic.
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This athletic racket is a pretty tough thing at that.
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Fish are pretty tough and if anglers are careful they suffer very little damage.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
as pretty/smart etc as the dickens
be in a (pretty) pickle
be sitting pretty
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At that stage in the campaign, she was sitting pretty in the polls.
come to a pretty/sorry pass
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"It's pretty tough work," he wearily confessed.
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I felt pretty nervous going into the exam, but after I got started I loosened up some.
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I thought the test was pretty easy.
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It's pretty cold today.
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Six o'clock? That's pretty early.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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I had to divert him pretty quickly!
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I was pretty sure Dilip would find the dang about as interesting as mud.
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Perception was pretty much neurophysiology: sensory inhibition, Mach band phenomena, iconic storage, and the like.
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The problem is that the core looks pretty rotten.
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We are certainly setting pretty right now.
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Well, that was pretty dumb of me, to even consider doing something so demeaning, I thought.
II. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
boy
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If you take away the image all that's left is a bunch of exceptionally pretty boys making some very ordinary music.
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My my my, whatta pretty boy you are.
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You are a pretty boy , isn't he a pretty boy, Bob?
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Who was that pretty boy in Ovid?
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You are a pretty boy , isn't he a pretty boy, Bob?
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Stay pretty , there's a good boy . 1 bet your young girl likes pretty boys.
dress
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That's a very pretty dress you're wearing.
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She told him to bring her a pretty dress and her best handkerchief.
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She took particular care with her preparations and chose a light, pretty dress and sensational earrings.
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Drowsily, achingly she allowed him to explore her flesh where it was revealed above the neckline of her pretty dress .
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But I've walked past so many pretty dresses and little socks with lacy tops, I'd almost given up.
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In a lighter mood, shaped pretty dresses are stamped with graphic modern florals.
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They were very clean and tidy, and Phyllis was wearing her prettiest dress .
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She seldom wore the pretty dresses or smart suits that Scarlet bought her, preferring her rags.
face
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He was always a horrid little boy for all his pretty face , and now he's a horrid man.
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He could be suckered in by a soft story or a pretty face .
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But she had the prettiest face and the sweetest smile you've ever seen.
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Her dark, pretty face glittered there in front of me.
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And his pretty face hasn't changed in all that time.
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Her hair was parted in the middle and drawn back from a round, pretty face .
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Pity to cut such a pretty face but she'd asked for it.
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Tis not a feeling of yesterday, to be effaced by the first pretty face which crosses my path.
garden
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The pretty garden has its own trout lake.
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It has ten acres of land and a pretty garden of roses and rhododendrons.
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The guest lounge overlooks the pretty garden .
girl
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He'd fallen in love with a pretty girl who had nice ways and was sweet to kiss and cuddle.
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There was the pretty girl from the village shop wearing an emerald-green dress more suited to a wedding.
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Martha is a pretty girl , self-assured and opinionated, quite a handful.
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Out of the mouth of this serious, pretty girl came an impenetrable, sub-literate provincial dialect.
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There were some pretty girls , too.
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It's like life itself - the prettiest girls are always on the Up escalator when you're on the Down.
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Or, if you will marry pretty girls .
good
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But I got this story pretty good , I think.
penny
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At one time, Mr Jarvis the coalman paid a pretty penny just to park his waggons there.
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It had, whatever way, and all night long for all she knew, to amount to a pretty penny .
picture
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And the charter made a pretty picture .
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Not a pretty picture , is it?
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But the countryside is more than just a pretty picture .
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This is not going to be a pretty picture .
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All in all, not a pretty picture .
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She wanted more than the two dimensions of pretty pictures , more than the garbled pidgin of kitchen natives.
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To the untrained eye, pretty pictures count for more than interesting spectra; neither are they without scientific interest.
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However, we were able to obtain the results for 1989 through 1991, and they do not paint a pretty picture .
sight
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It's not a pretty sight to finish in a classic fire and fall position.
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It may turn out to be a pleasant surprise or a not-so-pretty sight .
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It is not a pretty sight to see people so hurt.
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And now we have the unlikely and not altogether pretty sight of Bob Dole tearing up in public like a road-company Pagliacci.
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Afterwards I visited the boys and they were not a pretty sight .
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Not a pretty sight -- they went far beyond editorial endorsement.
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It's really a pretty sight , captain, built of Tennessee marble like one of those old palaces in Florence.
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He is not a pretty sight .
thing
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A school-boy's exercise may be a pretty thing for a school-boy; but is no treat for a man.
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She was most the prettiest thing I ever looked at, and her eyes were shut.
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Now all the pretty things sat around in the present, and all they did was make her regret the past.
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It was the prettiest thing I ever saw.
village
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Now it is a pretty village , much frequented by tourists.
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Cycling: Cycle hire is available in the town centre and many pretty villages are within easy reach.
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Alfriston is a very pretty village with a children's zoo.
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Caldbeck is a pretty village with several attractions, including a spinning workshop and John Peel's grave.
woman
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His head would never again be turned by a pretty woman .
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Secondtier pretty women have senses of humor because we have to. 6.
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He saw a rather pretty woman , not very young, with an air of good breeding that somehow attracted him.
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She was at times a pretty woman .
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Oh, pretty woman , walk my way!
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A clever, pretty woman who was certain to delight Tsu Ma.
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I figured from my vantage point that the pretty women went west, and the smart ones went east.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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pretty flowers
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A pretty girl like you should have a boyfriend.
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a pretty village on the Suffolk border
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Doesn't she look pretty with her hair up?
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Maureen's really pretty , isn't she?
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Nancy is younger than I am and much prettier.
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She has a pretty face.
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The room was decorated with pretty wallpaper with yellow flowers on it.
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They had an aquarium with lots of pretty little fish.
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We walked down the pretty , tree-lined avenue.
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What a pretty watch!
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You have a really pretty voice.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A very long time ago, she must have been pretty .
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And see how he always touches her head, gives her the prettiest ribbons for her braid?
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I felt really emotional as I gazed at her, realising how fast my pretty little girl was growing up.
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She was at times a pretty woman.
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Their pretty lace design is repeated on the side tables, lamps and blanket box.
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Then she added, My sister will be even prettier.
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They were far from being a pretty sight but he forced himself to carry out as thorough an investigation as he could.