Quite / pretty / rather / fairly

Quite、pretty、rather、fairly 放在形容詞或副詞前面，表示“在一定程度上”——通常比 very 弱，但比 a little 強。每個詞都有自己的語氣：

• Hue is quite quiet at night.

  順化的夜晚挺安靜的。

• Our new flat is pretty small, but it's cheap.

  我們的新公寓挺小的，不過很便宜。

• I'm fairly sure the shop opens at nine.

  我比較確定那家店九點開門。

• The bus was rather slow this morning.

  今天早上公交車開得相當慢。

💡中文一個“挺 / 比較 / 相當”就能涵蓋這四個詞的大部分用法。保險起見：日常口語用 pretty 或 quite；委婉地批評用 rather 或 a bit；真心誇獎就說 really good——在英式英語裡，quite good 聽起來可能只是“還行”。

1. Quite = 比較、相當——與普通形容詞連用（good、big、interesting、often…）。在英式英語中，它比 very 弱，而且語調很重要：重讀 “quite” 聽起來熱情不高。在美式英語中，quite 通常語氣很強，接近 very。

• The story is quite interesting.

  這個故事挺有意思的。（英式：還算有意思；美式：很有意思）

• We see each other quite often.

  我們經常見面。

2. Quite = 完全——與“絕對性”形容詞連用，比如 sure、right、true、clear、different、certain、impossible、amazing。這個意思在英式和美式英語中都一樣。

• You're quite right — we should leave now.

  你說得完全正確——我們現在就該走了。

• Life in the city is quite different from life in my village.

  城市裡的生活和我們村裡的生活完全不一樣。

Not quite = 不完全。“I don't quite understand” 是委婉地表示自己沒聽懂。

• I'm not quite ready. Give me five minutes.

  我還沒完全準備好。再給我五分鐘。

• Sorry, I don't quite understand the question.

  抱歉，我不太明白這個問題。

在 a/an + 形容詞 + 名詞 結構中，quite 通常放在 a/an 前面，而 pretty 和 fairly 放在它後面。Rather 兩個位置都可以。

Quite（pretty 不行）還有以下用法：

• quite a + 名詞（沒有形容詞）= 很大的、不尋常的：It was quite a surprise.（真是個大驚喜。）
• quite a lot (of) 和 quite a few = 相當多：There were quite a few people at the party.（派對上人挺多的。）
• quite + like / enjoy = 喜歡，但不是特別喜歡（英式英語）：I quite like jazz, but it's not my favourite.
• quite + agree = 完全同意：I quite agree — it's too expensive.

Rather 常和負面的意思連用：rather cold，rather expensive，rather boring（這裡也可以用 quite）。和正面的意思連用時，rather 表示“比我預想的好”。

只有 rather（quite、pretty、fairly 都不行）能直接和比較級或 too 連用：rather better，rather more expensive，rather too fast。比較級前也可以用 a bit / much / a lot——見“比較級 + much / a bit / far”一課。

• I didn't expect much, but the film was rather good.

  我本來沒抱什麼期望，沒想到這部電影還挺好看的。

• This laptop is rather faster than my old one.

  這檯筆記本電腦比我的舊電腦快不少。

• The taxi driver was going rather too fast.

  那位計程車司機開得有點太快了。

Fairly 是最弱的：fairly good = 還可以，不算真的好。它多用於中性或略帶正面的意思。

• My English is fairly good, but I still make mistakes.

  我的英語還算可以，但還是會犯錯。

💡別和 would rather（= 寧願、更想）搞混：I'd rather stay home tonight.（今晚我寧願待在家。）那是另一個結構——見“‘would rather’ / ‘had better’”一課。

• ✗It was pretty a good film.

  ✓It was a pretty good film.

  pretty 放在 a/an 後面。

• ✗We live in a quite old house.

  ✓We live in quite an old house.

  quite 通常放在 a/an 前面。

• ✗Today is fairly hotter than yesterday.

  ✓Today is rather hotter than yesterday. / Today is a bit hotter than yesterday.

  fairly 不和比較級連用。

• ✗Sorry, I don't pretty understand.

  ✓Sorry, I don't quite understand.

  not quite = 不完全；pretty 不能這樣和動詞連用。

• ✗There were quite lot of people.

  ✓There were quite a lot of people.

  固定搭配是 quite a lot of。