pretty or attractive - what's the difference?

I find John Thompson attractive and Pavarotti as well.

Pavarotti's attractive till he opens his mouth!

Well I've no doubt the women in his life find him VERY attractive when he opens his bulging wallet.

See Freda...it's the soaring vocals that does it for me.

Missi You're a cynic. I like Luca, he reminds me of Bluto from Popeye. Makes me want to hug him. & that is not a cue for fat jokes.

Cynic? Every fat, sweaty, old, ugly, heap of festering blubber with a large bank account/fame/power has a sexy bimbo gazing adoringly into his eyes. Does the name Carlo Ponti ring any bells? Was it Caroline Hearne who asked the question, 'What exactly was it that attracted you to that short, old, bald, ginger millionaire?' Not cynicism honey, stark reality.

Attractive is entirely different from pretty.

I agree but how is it different?

There's the feminine (pretty/attractive) and masculine (just attractive) thing. Attractive seems to apply to the overall package. Attractive seems more erotic, too, for some reason.

Yes but we are mainly only mentioning attactive FAMOUS people on here Mississ. There are some girls who generally like chunky men as opposed to ones they could crush (physically), likewise men who go for voluptuous women. I have not gone there but I sometimes can see the point. If you think how many large havy people there are on this planet it seems a shame fashion and the media is so exclusive of them ; I know this has been said ad infinitum but it's true. It's definitely 'attractive' which fills the maternity ward rather than beautiful or pretty.

Ok. let's start again. I see a pretty woman walking along the street ... pretty maybe ... I'm 'attracted' to her for her prettiness perhaps. If it turned out she had a brain of a duck I would not find her attractive, despite her 'pretiness'. A sexy, (for there is a difference between sexy and pretty) woman walks along the street ... I'm attracted blah, blah. She has a brain but no humour (or maybe a trainset and a tumour) I would not find her ... blah. An attractive person has, perhaps, a mix of qualities. Not perfect in all qualities we each seek - and they are all diferent shirley? - but enough to make them 'attractive'. e.g. kylie minogue is not attractive (to me anyhow) but I would let her sit on my face. A sudden thought. I find some people 'attractive' through the medium of type. And yet I have no idea what they look like! Discuss. *reads post ... worries about tumour and sitting on face reamarks ... presses 'post' anyway*

If i offered someone £50 for nothing, would they find the idea pretty or attractive? Or both?

I think that it could be looked at like this attraction is a natural force, magnets for instance attract metal. In people being attracted to someone is a body thing, it's your body wanting thier body, or similar. It, at a basic level, is seated in pre linguistic thought. It's an urge. pretty is an aesthetic judgement, a head thing, seated entirely in linguistic thought. Pretty is a concept, not an urge, and is there for a totally different thing to attractive. Views or furniture or you children can be pretty, but that doesn't necessarily make them attractive. also attractiveness implies a wish on your part to possess or gain access to that whatever it is you are attracted to. Pretty is just an observation. blimey, I should go to bed

"Context" keeps coming to mind...

I find myself attracted to mark in a kind of better use of language than me way.

and mine was pretty unattractive!

I think pretty means decorative but not particularly challenging. So someone pretty tends to have small features that go together well. But too much of the prettiness (like opal fruits) can get on your nerves. Beauty can be found on someone with strong features who isn't pretty or harmonious at all. And that can get on your nerves too if you're not in the right mood. But attractive doesn't ever irritate because someone's being attractive isn't based on pure visuals, and they strike up a chord in your heart or gut.

Rachel from S Club is pretty, Barbara Streisand is/was attractive

This thread is pretty attractive.

Horse-@!#$ attracts flies but is it attractive? Yes, to flies. You'd let that plastic Aussie tart shove her doughnut in your face Colin? Jesus christ man, you don't know WHERE she's been!

This stupid bloody swear filter really p.i.s.s.e.s me off, anybody can get round it so why not just dump it fer chrissakes. It was horse-s.hit as if you didn't know.

Mrs Tradlock is pretty attractive

I like Mark Brown's definitions, tho think pretty and attractive can be applied to inanimate objects too.. I think cartoons/animations can be sexy (they are not quite inanimate, granted))... the big fat Bhudda on my windowsill is attractive, that bulbous belly just calling out for a rub...

The prospect of George Bush, Osama Bin Laden, and Lloyd Grossman in a multiple car crash is attractive but not pretty.

Pretty tends to refer to facial features. And it's attractive in a twee, cute sort of a way. Attractive refers to a lot of things:mammary glands, posteriors, personality, confidence. A lot of models considered to be attractive have faces like slapped pairs of buttocks. I should blinking well say so. Heh, this non-swearing thing is very liberating.

OK, I think we have the definitions fairly well sorted out. So who do you find pretty and who do you find attractive? Pretty: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kylie Minogue, Anna Kournikova, Attractive: Debbie Harry, Twiggy, Martina Navratilova, Chrissy Hynde, Annie Lennox, I'm sure there are loads more but I must admit to not being very obsessed by celebrity and therefore I don't think in those terms. However for comparitive purposes we need to talk about the well known here. A real oddity - my 17 year old daughter who is a real stunner finds Johnny Vegas very attractive. Weird or what?

Something to worry about I'd say Tony.. on the other hand, shows that she values humour and originality above bone structure and skin scarcity. Attractive: Michael Stipe of REM... he makes me practically swoon .. that voice... those eyes... my daughter thinks Im mad. Pretty (yes men can be pretty Jab): Jonny Depp, Jude Law. I think Id take Stipe anyday, apart from the obvious hurdle of me not being his type...

I think Johnny Vegas is f*****g gorgeous!!! It's the combination of helium, playdoh and the laughing policeman that does it...

It takes all sorts I guess.

Martina Navratilova? pretty scary perhaps.

I think someone who has the ability to make your heart soar purely by the power and purity of his voice, is very attractive indeed. I'm talking Pavarotti here.

Oh, Tony has a very feminine side.

Pretty is, indeed, more decorative than deep (in my opinion, anyway). It's more...how shall I put it...'on the surface'(the Dutch 'opperflakte' is better, but I can't think of the English equivalent right now) than attractive. Attractive doesn't necessarily have to be particularly good-looking (pretty), I think. Some people who I consider attractive could no way be described as pretty. There has to be something more, something behind the eyes, something deeper. How about the difference between 'sexy' and 'erotic'?

Pretty, Attractive Beautiful is all in the eye of the beholder just as one mans meat is another mans poison so as there is so many of us who knows this thread could end up taking the whole site over as Tony so wisely noticed when he changed tack...

Excellent! Now I can give a definition the next time I say 'so and so' is attractive but not pretty or handsome. Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Keanu Reeves - all pretty boys but nothing sexy or attractive about them. Now Mel Gibson, he is seeeeeeexxxxxxxyyyyyyy in a 'take me my loins are yours' way. Women - Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and the one from the new Matrix. They are hotties Kylie and Britney are pretty but I don't find anything particularly sexual about them. My two cents...

Johnny Vegas does have a charm, he makes me laugh. That's the thing about attractiveness, someone doesn't have to be pretty to be attractive

They read trashy porn. You read sexy stories. Whereas I, of course, read erotic literature!