Consider the singular use of "a sentence" in this statement:
This is a question about the origin of "pretty" as an adverb in
a sentence like "that's pretty good" or a phrase like "pretty much"
I'm confused as to which form is more accurate to use here , the singular or the plural.
My understanding is that saying "in sentences like" here implies that "there are a lot of similar sentences but here is a sample sentence."
and saying "in a sentence like" implies that "the sentence I'm going to mention is noteworthy , so I'm going to analyze it now."
Am I correct ?