Quite / pretty / rather / fairly

Quite、pretty、rather、fairly 放在形容词或副词前面，表示“在一定程度上”——通常比 very 弱，但比 a little 强。每个词都有自己的语气：

• Hue is quite quiet at night.

  顺化的夜晚挺安静的。

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

  我们的新公寓挺小的，不过很便宜。

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

  我比较确定那家店九点开门。

• The bus was rather slow this morning.

  今天早上公交车开得相当慢。

💡中文一个“挺 / 比较 / 相当”就能涵盖这四个词的大部分用法。保险起见：日常口语用 pretty 或 quite；委婉地批评用 rather 或 a bit；真心夸奖就说 really good——在英式英语里，quite good 听起来可能只是“还行”。

1. Quite = 比较、相当——与普通形容词连用（good、big、interesting、often…）。在英式英语中，它比 very 弱，而且语调很重要：重读 “quite” 听起来热情不高。在美式英语中，quite 通常语气很强，接近 very。

• The story is quite interesting.

  这个故事挺有意思的。（英式：还算有意思；美式：很有意思）

• We see each other quite often.

  我们经常见面。

2. Quite = 完全——与“绝对性”形容词连用，比如 sure、right、true、clear、different、certain、impossible、amazing。这个意思在英式和美式英语中都一样。

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

  你说得完全正确——我们现在就该走了。

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

  城市里的生活和我们村里的生活完全不一样。

Not quite = 不完全。“I don't quite understand” 是委婉地表示自己没听懂。

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

  我还没完全准备好。再给我五分钟。

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

  抱歉，我不太明白这个问题。

在 a/an + 形容词 + 名词 结构中，quite 通常放在 a/an 前面，而 pretty 和 fairly 放在它后面。Rather 两个位置都可以。

Quite（pretty 不行）还有以下用法：

• quite a + 名词（没有形容词）= 很大的、不寻常的：It was quite a surprise.（真是个大惊喜。）
• quite a lot (of) 和 quite a few = 相当多：There were quite a few people at the party.（派对上人挺多的。）
• quite + like / enjoy = 喜欢，但不是特别喜欢（英式英语）：I quite like jazz, but it's not my favourite.
• quite + agree = 完全同意：I quite agree — it's too expensive.

Rather 常和负面的意思连用：rather cold，rather expensive，rather boring（这里也可以用 quite）。和正面的意思连用时，rather 表示“比我预想的好”。

只有 rather（quite、pretty、fairly 都不行）能直接和比较级或 too 连用：rather better，rather more expensive，rather too fast。比较级前也可以用 a bit / much / a lot——见“比较级 + much / a bit / far”一课。

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

  我本来没抱什么期望，没想到这部电影还挺好看的。

• This laptop is rather faster than my old one.

  这台笔记本电脑比我的旧电脑快不少。

• The taxi driver was going rather too fast.

  那位出租车司机开得有点太快了。

Fairly 是最弱的：fairly good = 还可以，不算真的好。它多用于中性或略带正面的意思。

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

  我的英语还算可以，但还是会犯错。

💡别和 would rather（= 宁愿、更想）搞混：I'd rather stay home tonight.（今晚我宁愿待在家。）那是另一个结构——见“‘would rather’ / ‘had better’”一课。

• ✗It was pretty a good film.

  ✓It was a pretty good film.

  pretty 放在 a/an 后面。

• ✗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 不和比较级连用。

• ✗Sorry, I don't pretty understand.

  ✓Sorry, I don't quite understand.

  not quite = 不完全；pretty 不能这样和动词连用。

• ✗There were quite lot of people.

  ✓There were quite a lot of people.

  固定搭配是 quite a lot of。