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antman
I think "It's nice and all, but..." roughly means "Indeed/For the record, it's nice, but...", but... can I change the word nice and apply the sentence pattern to some other adjectives? For example, It's smelly and all, but it tastes much much better than it smells. Or, It's hard and all, but that's exactly what makes it worth trying.

Answers · 6

3
I don't quite agree with Tyler. "And all" is unacceptable as formal, correct, written English. It is, however, a very common, comfortable, colloquial expression used IN SPEECH. It is sloppy--the verbal equivalent of wearing old worn-out comfortable clothes. It is intentionally sloppy because the speaker MEANS to be vague, rather than speaking with clarity and precision. It's, uh, y'know, like um, bad English and all. Whatever. <---Example of bad English. Nevertheless, both of the examples you give sound to me like correct, natural-sounding, sloppy colloquial spoken English.
1
The "and all" is very poor English. It's unnecessary and only detracts from your statement. I would avoid using it unless you fully understand its connotation.
0
This is a great question antman. In the TV drama Grey's Anatomy, episode 1x03, Izzie says "sharing your organs is really great and all, but I think you have a family." In episode 7x10 there is "I mean, I liked her and all, but what I liked most about her was..." so yes you can apply it to other adjectives, and you can apply it to verbs!
0
I just want to say that I, as a person who learns English as a foreign language and has no one to practice it with, really appreciate the inputs by both of you. They are equally valuable for me. I can totally understand and cannot deny the importance of knowing sloppy but common usage used by native speakers or I'll have an even harder time understanding them. I can also relate to what Tyler thinks. There are definitely times when I am also really sick and tired of some sloppy, redundant, and/or meaningless expressions made in my native language. Thank you guys a million for taking time to reply to me. I really do :)

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