Hi guys,
I'm settling down rather well.
rather/fairly/quite/pretty
Do you think all the words above are interchangeable?
What would be the difference if any? Often, you can interchange these. Much depends on the context, and even on the speaker's tone of voice and facial expression.
Subject to the above comments, here are a few very general and somewhat subjective comments on differences. Let's consider the question 'How is your son doing in his first year at University?'
He's doing rather well. He has no real problems, everything is fine. Maybe even better than expected. The speaker may even being rather modest about his son's great success (I did rather well at the Olympics, I won a gold medal).
He's doing fairly well. He has at least a few problems, he isn't meeting expectations. But it's not terrible.
He's doing quite well. No real problems, no reason to worry. Maybe he can do better.
He's doing pretty well. No real problems, no reason to worry.
He's doing rather badly. He has serious problems. The speaker may even understating his level of concern and dismay.
He's doing fairly badly. He has at least a few problems, he isn't meeting expectations. But it's not terrible. 'Fairly' sounds just a little odd when used here in a negative context.
He's doing quite badly. The situation is not good.
He's doing pretty badly. Maybe he's going to fail.
Best wishes, Clive