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Quite and Pretty

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Latest post Sun, Apr 30 2006 12:38 AM by Clive. 6 replies.
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Mjomran  +  220724 Fri, 28 Apr 06 11:32 PM

Hi,

1. When one says "quite good", does this mean "very good" or "faily good"?

2. When one says "pretty sure", does this mean "very sure" or "faily sure"?

Thanks in advance
Mjomran
Joined on Sun, Apr 23 2006
New Member 07
Marius Hancu  +  220726 Fri, 28 Apr 06 11:43 PM
that's "fairly," which is pretty average by the way
"quite" is closer to "very"

quite  
3 : to a considerable extent : PRETTY, RATHER <quite near> <quite ill>
<quite rich>

fairly
4 : TOLERABLY, MODERATELY, RATHER <a fairly difficult scientific text>
<a fairly steady diet of lamb and beef> : moderately well <how are you
getting along? Only fairly>
Marius Hancu
Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006
Veteran Member 11,673
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MrPedantic  +  220753 Sat, 29 Apr 06 01:14 AM

I think it depends on the intonation, in British English. With a confident intonation, "That's quite good!" can mean "that's surprisingly good!". With a hesitant intonation – "That's quite good" – it can mean "fairly good".

(The same applies to "pretty".)

MrP
MrPedantic
Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member 12,592
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Marius Hancu, 3 yr 210 days ago
Good point on intonation, MrPedantic. 
Thethenothere123  +  220793 Sat, 29 Apr 06 04:31 AM
 MrPedantic wrote:

I think it depends on the intonation, in British English. With a confident intonation, "That's quite good!" can mean "that's surprisingly good!". With a hesitant intonation – "That's quite good" – it can mean "fairly good".

(The same applies to "pretty".)

MrP

 


It's the same in NAmE (North American English).
Thethenothere123
Joined on Fri, Mar 3 2006
Los Angeles, California
Full Member 187
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Anonymous, 3 yr 209 days ago

Thank you all for ur valuable feedbacks. So it depends on the intonation. However, when one writes it. How can we distiguish between the two meanings?

Clive  +  221009 Sun, 30 Apr 06 12:38 AM

Hi,

Generaly speaking, in writing you just have to rely on the context and on your familiarity, if any, with the writer.

Best wishes, Clive
Clive
Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,630
El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
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