Quite, Pretty, Rather, and Fairly

What These Words Do

Quite, pretty, rather, and fairly all soften an adjective or adverb. They sit between “a little” and “very” on the intensity scale, but each one carries a slightly different weight.

Quite and Pretty

Quite and pretty mean the same thing: more than “a little” but less than “very.”

• The new office is quite spacious. — or — The new office is pretty spacious.
• The project deadline is quite tight, so we meet pretty often to check progress.

Pretty is informal. Use it in conversation and casual emails, but avoid it in formal reports or presentations.

Word Order with Quite

Quite goes before a/an:

• It was quite a difficult negotiation. (not a quite difficult negotiation)
• She gave quite a long presentation.

With pretty, the normal order stays:

• She gave a pretty long presentation.

Quite Without an Adjective

You can use quite (but not pretty) in these patterns:

Rather

Rather is close in strength to quite and pretty, but it tends to appear with negative qualities — things the speaker sees as bad or unwanted.

• The training session was rather boring.
• His email was rather rude, don’t you think?
• The approval process is rather slow.

When rather appears with a positive adjective, it signals surprise — “more than expected”:

• The intern’s report was rather good. I wasn’t expecting that.
• The food at the conference was rather impressive.

Fairly

Fairly is the weakest of the four. When you say something is fairly good, you mean it is acceptable but not great — it could be better.

• The salary is fairly competitive, but I’d hoped for more.
• We see each other fairly regularly, maybe once a month.
• The hotel was fairly clean, though not spotless.

Quite = Completely (a Second Meaning)

Quite has a second, separate meaning: completely. This happens with adjectives that already express an absolute or extreme idea.

• What she told us was quite true. (= completely true)
• The two proposals are quite different. (= completely different)
• I quite agree with your assessment. (= I completely agree)

Not Quite = Not Completely

• I don’t quite understand the new policy. Can you explain it again?
• The report isn’t quite ready. Give me ten more minutes.

How to Tell the Two Meanings Apart

Look at the adjective. If the adjective describes something that can exist in degrees (big, interesting, cold), quite = “fairly.” If the adjective is absolute (true, sure, impossible), quite = “completely.”

Quick Self-Check