Is the word quite an adverb

Полезное

Pronunciation[change]

• enPR: kwīt
• IPA ^(key): /kwaɪt/
• SAMPA: /kwaIt/

Adverb[change]

Positive quite

Comparative none

Superlative none

1. Very; much.

   The dog was quite little.

   She was quite good to me.

2. Not very.

   The evening was quite dark and I saw a small frog jump across the road.

Usage[change]

In American English, the adverb «quite» does not usually modify verbs. It almost always modifies adjectives. In British English, «quite» often modifies verbs.

Synonyms[change]

• (very) very, completely, entirely, totally, utterly, absolutely, extremely, fully, wholly, unequivocally, strongly, positively
• (fairly) fairly, rather, pretty, moderately, relatively, reasonably, somewhat, to a certain extent, considerably, comparatively

Antonyms[change]

• (very) slightly, barely, merely, hardly, faintly, vaguely, a little, somewhat, weakly, indistinctly, imperceptibly
• (fairly) extremely, barely

Interjection[change]

1. Exactly or indeed.

   «Is the answer correct?» «Quite!»

Synonyms[change]

• certainly
• exactly
• for sure
• indeed
• yes

Hello English learners! This blog is going to be about the differences between quite, quiet and quit. I think the most important thing is the pronunciation with each of these words. After I cover how to say the words, I will go over the definitions of these words.

👉 What does Quite mean?

The word quite is an adverb and it means really or very.

For example

• This bread is quite good. It might be the best bread I have ever eaten. 
• She is quite lovely. (She is a great person)
• His new salary has made quite a difference in his life.

👉 Quite Silent

Quite silent means that something, or someone, is almost completely silent. Quite as an adjective or adverb means that something is in between being complete and unfinished. It is a kind of middle-ground.

When something is quite silent it could be even more silent, or it could be even louder.

• Considering he got home really drunk he was quite silent.
• I have to admit that vacuum cleaner is quite silent for an old model.
• The kids are quite silent, maybe even too silent. I have to check what’s going on.

👉 Quite Sound

When something is quite sound it means it’s plausible, or in good condition. Quite sound is usually used to describe ideas, plans, or the structural integrity of various things.

• Once she read the book and prepared her answers, her agreements became quite sound.
• That was quite a sound idea fro Jeff.
• The exterior of this boat is quite sound, so you don’t have to worry about leaks.

👉  What does Quiet mean?

Quiet can be used as both as an adjective or a verb.

As an adjective, quiet means silent or no sound or noise.

Here are some examples:

• You are too loud. Be quiet!
• We live on a quiet street, hardly any cars drive down our road.
• I like read the paper on a quiet Sunday morning.

When quiet is used as a verb, it means to make quiet or to silence.

Remember that a verb is an action, so when using the word quiet as a verb it will be an action.

Here are some examples:

• The dog was barking, so I had to quiet it.
• Her baby was crying during the movie, so she went to quiet it.

Quite and quite are two different words with two different meanings. While they are spelled similarly, and often mixed up, using the wrong word can make the entire sentence wrong as well. Quite and quite also fulfill different roles in a sentence.

🧠 Quite is an adjective or adverb depending on the circumstance and position within the sentence. Quite means that something is between being very good and very bad.

• They bought a used car last week. Even though it’s used you could never tell since it looks and feels quite new.
• I generally don’t like seafood, but that seafood paella from last night was quite delicious.
• James doesn’t know him quite well, since they talk so rarely.

🧠 Quiet is an adjective. It means that something is very silent. It’s not completely silent, or soundless, but it’s close to that.

• I can’t get any quiet in this house, with the kids running around all the time.
• Can you be quiet for just a second, please?
• Sharon is always studying in the library because it’s so quiet there.

👉 The Spelling of Quite and Quiet

Quite and quiet use the same letters, and are often mistaken for one another. Quite is spelled with the E at the very end. Quiet is spelled with the E before the T.

👉 Quiet and Quite in a sentence

Quiet = silent

• It’s quiet in the forest, and the only thing you can hear are your footsteps.
• We love hiking to the top of the mountain and watching the starts at night. It’s so quiet and peaceful so we can relax.
• She’s been quiet all day. I’m afraid something might be wrong, but she won’t tell me.
• The summer was surprisingly quiet, with little tourists in the city. 
• Thomas is a quiet boy. He likes to draw and keeps mostly to himself.

Quite = really, completely

• She’s got a quite a temper, and wouldn’t like being the one to give her the bad news.
• That’s quite the watch you have there. Where did you buy it?
• Jasmine doesn’t want to do the job. Quite frankly, neither do I.
• I’ve had quite a breakthrough yesterday.
• How could he do that to her? I found his actions quite insulting, but I didn’t expect much better from his either.

Test Yourself NOW!

👩‍🏫 Are quiet and quite homophones?

Quiet and quite are not homophones. They don’t sound the same when pronounced, but they are quite similar. If a person talks fast one might mistake them for one another.

In any other case they should not sound the same.

👩‍🏫 Most quiet or quietest?

Both forms are correct. Quiet is one of the few words where both forms are correct. They mean the same thing, and can be used depending on personal preference.

👩‍🏫 Quiet busy or quite busy?

Quite busy is the correct phrasing.

👩‍🏫Quite sure or quiet sure?

The correct way to say or write the phrase is – quite sure.

👩‍🏫 Quite high or Quiet high?

Quite high is correct. Quiet high is incorrect.

👩‍🏫 Quite happy or quiet happy?

The correct expression is quite happy. Quiet happy is incorrect.

👩‍🏫 Keep quiet or keep quite?

Keep quiet is correct. Keep quite is incorrect.

👩‍🏫 Quiet good or quite a good?

Quiet good is incorrect. Quite a good can be use to describe a thing.

Example:

• That’s quite a good car. Is it new?
• Tiffany gave me quite a good idea yesterday.
• Quite a good throw he has. In the future he should play rugby.

👩‍🏫 Be quiet or Be Quite?

Be quiet is correct. Be quite is incorrect.

👩‍🏫 Quite big or Quiet big?

The correct expression is quite big. Quiet big is incorrect.

👩‍🏫 Quite easy or Quiet easy?

The correct way to say and write the expression is quite easy.

👩‍🏫 Quite far or Quiet far?

When you’re going somewhere you’re going quite far, not quiet far.

👩‍🏫 Quite late or Quiet Late?

If you’re late for something you’re quite late, not quiet late.

👩‍🏫 More Quiet or Quite?

When someone needs to be silent they need to be more quiet. More quite is not correct.

👩‍🏫 Not quite or Not quiet?

Not quite is the correct expression. Not quiet describes something loud, but it’s best to just use the word loud instead.

👩‍🏫 Quite often or Quiet often?

Quite often the correct expression for something that happens fairly regularly.

👩‍🏫 Quite well or Quiet well?

When someone is doing something fairly good, they are doing quite well.

👩‍🏫 You are quiet or quite?

There are different ways to use both. Quiet describes someone who does not say much. When someone is quite something they can be different things.

• You’re’ quiet today, what’s going on?
• You’re quite the magician, where did you learn those tricks?

Check your Grammar ››

👉  What does Quit mean?

The word quit is a verb and it means to stop or not finish.

For example

• I was so full from the meal, that I had to quit eating.
• She quit her job after six months. 
• He quit his life in the city and moved to a rural area.

Skype English Lesson with a native AMERICAN or BRITISH teacher ››

👉 Quite

Let’s start with quite.

The pronunciation of quite has only one syllable. A syllable is an uninterrupted segment of speech, only making one sound.

For example these words only have one syllable:

• Ball
• Toy 
• It 
• Book

These words have two syllables:

• Table (ta-ble)
• Notebook (note-book)
• Coffee (cal-fee) 
• Remote (re-mote)

👉 How do you spell quite?

The pronunciation of the word quite follows the phonetic pronunciation guide of [kwahyt] if that helps.

If you know the pronunciation guide, then great! If you don’t, then this next part is for you.

You need to remember that the word quite is one syllable. Keep that in mind as you are saying this word.

The first part of the word quite makes the Q sound. It is a combination of the K sound with a WA sound.

It looks like this:

K-WA (you need to pronounce this very quickly in order to get the Q sound).

I won’t go into too much depth of the anatomy that your mouth should be making, but I will say this.

It should look like you are trying to blow a bubble.
Put your lips out and make an O shape with your mouth.
After you make the K-WA sound, you need to change the sound to the I sound.
Your mouth will need to open very wide at this time.

Before, your mouth was small and in the O shape. Now it should be wide and you should be smiling. The sound so far it is pronounced K-WHY.

Be sure to practice just making this sound a couple of times. This sound is the hardest part in the pronunciation of quite.

Finally, we come to ending sound. It is a very short sound and it is the t sound.
In order to produce this sound, you should know that your tongue will do most all of the work. It is very important to focus on the position of the mouth as well as the tongue.

Go in front of a mirror or bring one close to your electronic device.
Let’s start with the position of the mouth.

Now let’s work on the position of the tongue.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE TIP OF THE TONGUE MAKES THIS SOUND! That way you get a sharp t sound.
Okay. Good. Now we are ready to make the t sound.
Your breathing is very important in making this sound correctly.

Do you know how you can check to see if your breath is bad or not? (You put your hand in front of your mouth and breathe to get that warm breath.) Don’t blow. Your breath should be hot and not cool or cold.

This is the breathing that you need to make the t sound.

Before you try this, I want you to practice a specific movement with your tongue that you are going to make when producing the t sound.

Movement with the tongue

In the start position, the tongue will be making a bowl or cup or U shape.

In the end position, the tongue will be making an upside-down bowl or upside-down cup or upside-down U shape.

The movement of the tongue from pointing up to pointing down needs to be moving at the SAME TIME that you are PUSHING AIR out of your mouth.

(Do you know the breathing technique I mentioned above? This needs to happen at the same time that your tongue is moving down.)

The sound you are trying to make is the T-A sound.
Practice this. Chances are you won’t get it the first time.
Pay close attention to ALL of the steps above when making this sounds to say quite!

Put all of the K-WHY T sounds together and you know can say quite correctly.

Quiet

The next word that I want to teach you to pronounce is quiet. The pronunciation guide is [kwahy-it]

This will be very similar to quite, however the word quiet has two syllables.

Let’s go.

The first part of the word quiet makes the Q sound. It is a combination of the K sound with a WA sound.

👉 How do you spell quiet?

It looks like this:

K-WA (you need to pronounce this very quickly in order to get the Q sound).
I won’t go into too much depth of the anatomy that your mouth should be making, but I will say this.

It should look like you are trying to blow a bubble.
Put your lips out and make an O shape with your mouth.

After you make the K-WA sound you need to change the sound to the I sound
Your mouth will need to open very wide at this time.
Before, your mouth was small and in the O shape. Now it should be wide and you should be smiling.

The sound so far is K-WHY.

Be sure to practice just making this sound a couple of times. This sound is the hardest part in the pronunciation of quiet.

The next sound, which will start the second syllable, is the E sound.

This sound requires you to smile even more after the K-WHY part. The sound should come from the back of your throat.
It should also come from the back TOP part of your throat.

Here are some examples of that sound:

• E-xample
• E-xcuse me
• E-lephant

The beginning sounds from the letter E in these words have that E sound that I am looking for.
Combine that with what we have learned previously.

K-WHY-E

Practice this a couple of times before going on to the t sound.
Now that you have practiced, let’s pronounce that final sound.
It is a very short sound and it is the t sound.

In order to produce this sound, you should know that your tongue will do most all of the work. It is very important to focus on the position of the mouth as well as the tongue.

Go in front of a mirror or bring one close to your electronic device.

Let’s start with the position of the mouth.

Now let’s work on the position of the tongue.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE TIP OF THE TONGUE MAKES THIS SOUND! That way you get a sharp t sound.

Okay. Good. Now we are ready to make the t sound.
Your breathing is very important in making this sound correctly.

Do you know how you can check to see if your breath is bad or not? (You put your hand in front of your mouth and breathe to get that warm breath.) Don’t blow. Your breath should be hot and not cool or cold.

This is the breathing that you need to make the t sound.

Before you try this, I want you to practice a specific movement with your tongue that you are going to make when producing the t sound.

Movement with the tongue

In the start position, the tongue will be making a bowl or cup or U shape.
In the end position, the tongue will be making an upside-down bowl or upside-down cup or upside-down U shape.

The movement of the tongue from pointing up to pointing down needs to be moving at the SAME TIME that you are PUSHING AIR out of your mouth. (Do you know the breathing technique I mentioned above? This needs to happen at the same time that your tongue is moving down.)

The sound you are trying to make is the T-A sound.

Practice this. Chances are you won’t get it the first time.
Pay close attention to ALL of the steps above when making this sound!
Put all of the K-WHY-E- T sounds together and you know can say quiet correctly.

Quit

The last word that I will discuss is quit. The phonetic pronunciation guide is [kwit].

The word “quit” has only one syllable and is shorter in sound than quite and quiet.

It will have the same beginning sound as quite and quiet, but then there is a different vowel sound that comes after the Q sound.

Let’s take a closer look.
The first part of the word quit makes the Q sound. It is a combination of the K sound with a WA sound.

👉 How do you spell quit?

It looks like this:

K-WA (you need to pronounce this very quickly in order to get the Q sound).
I won’t go into too much depth of the anatomy that your mouth should be making, but I will say this.

It should look like you are trying to blow a bubble.
Put your lips out and make an O shape with your mouth.
After you make the K-WA sound you need to change the sound to the E sound

Your mouth will need to open very wide at this time.
Before, your mouth was small and in the O shape. Now it should be wide and you should be smiling.

The sound so far is K-WH-E.
Be sure to practice just making this sound a couple of times. This sound is the hardest part in the pronunciation of quit.

This E sound requires you to smile even more after the K-WH part. The sound should come from the back of your throat.
It should also come from the back TOP part of your throat.

Here are some examples of that sound:

• E-xample
• E-xcuse me
• E–lephant

The beginning sounds from the letter E in these words have that E sound that I am looking for. Combine that with what we have learned previously.

K-WH-E

Finally, we come to ending sound. It is a very short sound and it is the “t” sound.

In order to produce this sound, you should know that your tongue will do most all of the work. It is very important to focus on the position of the mouth as well as the tongue.

Go in front of a mirror or bring one close to your electronic device.
Let’s start with the position of the mouth.

Now let’s work on the position of the tongue.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE TIP OF THE TONGUE MAKES THIS SOUND! That way you get a sharp t sound.

Okay. Good. Now we are ready to make the t sound.
Your breathing is very important in making this sound correctly.

Do you know how you can check to see if your breath is bad or not? (You put your hand in front of your mouth and breathe to get that warm breath.) Don’t blow. Your breath should be hot and not cool or cold.

This is the breathing that you need to make the t sound.

Before you try this, I want you to practice a specific movement with your tongue that you are going to make when producing the t sound.

Movement with the tongue

In the start position, the tongue will be making a bowl or cup or U shape.

In the end position, the tongue will be making an upside-down bowl or upside-down cup or upside-down U shape.

The movement of the tongue from pointing up to pointing down needs to be moving at the SAME TIME that you are PUSHING AIR out of your mouth. (Do you know the breathing technique I mentioned above? This needs to happen at the same time that your tongue is moving down.)

The sound you are trying to make is the T-A sound.
Practice this. Chances are you won’t get it the first time.
Pay close attention to ALL of the steps above when making this sound!
Put all of the K-WH-E-T sounds together and you know can say quit correctly.

Great work reading this post!

Feel free to come back to review the pronunciation.

Do you still have doubts? Schedule a lesson with one of our many qualified teachers here at www.myenglishteacher.eu

See you soon!

Is the meaning of the adverb quite, very or completely? It looks like a small difference but it can lead to big misunderstandings.
Sometimes quite means the same thing in British and American English, but sometimes it’s used differently.
In this video we show you
– how to use quite to mean completely
– how to use not quite (meaning not completely) to criticize someone gently or say you disagree.
– how quite can mean very in American English, but fairly or pretty in British English
– how you can sometimes tell the meaning of quite by whether it’s used with a gradable or ungradable adjectives.
Finally we have some advice for any American guys who are going on a date with a British girl.
Don’t tell her she’s quite pretty!

Click here to see more videos on British and American English.

The adverb quite

Hi everyone. I’m Vicki and I’m British.
And I’m Jay and I’m American and today we’re looking at a word that’s quite tricky.
No, it’s very tricky.
But that’s what I said!
No you didn’t!
I speak British English and Jay speaks American English and normally, we manage to communicate OK.
But there’s a word that causes us problems. Quite.
It’s such a common word. We both use it a lot.
But it’s the word that’s hardest for us to understand.
Sometimes we use it in the same way, but sometimes we use it differently.
And then we get confused.
Quite.
Quite?
Let’s look at some examples.

Have you finished the artwork yet?
No. I’m not quite ready. I need another five minutes.
Take your time. I’m quite happy to wait.
Do you want to go and get a coffee or something?
No, I’m quite all right thanks. I’ve had quite enough coffee today. That’s not quite correct.
Just go away!
What’s your problem?

Here are some of the things we said. ‘Quite’ is an adverb and it means ‘completely’ in all these examples. It means to the greatest possible degree – 100%. We can use it this way in British and American English
And you heard quite in two negative sentences too, where it means not completely – so almost, but not 100%. Again it can have this meaning in British and American English. We often use quite in the negative like this to criticize someone gently or to say we disagree with them.
So we might say ‘I don’t quite agree’ or ‘That’s not quite right’.
Yes, and we mean ‘I don’t agree 100%.’ or ‘You’re a little wrong’. Quite softens the disagreement.
It works like that in American and British English.
But there’s another way we use ‘quite’ that’s quite different.

So what did you think of my report?
It’s quite good.
Fantastic. I’ll send it to everybody now.
Hang on. It needs some changes.
But you said it was quite good.
Yes, but we need it to be VERY good.
Huh?

There was a misunderstanding there.
Yeah, I thought you liked my report.
Well, I thought it was fairly good or pretty good, but not very good.
But you said it was quite good. If I say that I mean very good. Quite is a forceful word.
It’s not forceful in British English. It just means to some degree.
So let me get this straight. Sometimes when you say ‘quite’ you mean completely, like me.
Yes.
But other times you just mean fairly or pretty.
Yes.
Then how can I tell what you mean?
Well, sometimes you can tell from the kind of adjective we use with quite – whether it’s gradable or ungradable.
We’d better explain that.

Gradable or ungradable

Some English adjectives are gradable, so they can be true to different degrees. For example good is gradable. Something can be very good, or fairly good, or just a little good. But other adjectives are ungradable, for example perfect. We don’t say something is very perfect or fairly perfect or a little perfect. It’s just perfect.
Here are some more examples of ungradable adjectives. Things are either dead or they’re not. People are either married or they’re not. There’s no in-between with these adjectives, so we don’t use them with ‘very’. The meanings of these adjectives already contain the idea of ‘very’.
So here’s what happens in British English. If we use ‘quite’ with an ungradable adjective, we probably mean completely. For example, ‘It’s quite perfect’. It’s 100% perfect. But if we use quite with a gradable adjective, we probably mean ‘fairly’ – so to some extent, but not very. For example, ‘It’s quite nice’ – it’s fairly nice.
So if you say ‘I’m quite tired’, you mean you’re fairly tired.
Yeah, and what about you?
I could mean that, but normally if I say I’m quite tired, I mean I’m very tired.
Pronunciation matters too. If we stress the word ‘quite’ the difference can get more marked.
I’m QUITE tired – that means I’m very very tired
I’m QUITE tired – that means I’m only fairly tired.
There’s another thing you do in British English.
What’s that?
I’ll say something and instead of saying ‘I agree’ you say ‘quite’.
Oh yes. It’s rather formal but to show we agree with someone or to show we’ve understood, we can say ‘quite’ or ‘quite so’. It just means ‘yes’.
It sounds very British.
Quite.
Let’s have a quiz question now.
OK. See if you can answer this everyone, and you Jay. If your American boss says ‘your work is quite good’, what does it mean? Jay?
If my American boss says my work is quite good, I should get a raise. They think my work is very good.
British English is different. If my British boss says my work is quite good, I’d have to ask what I’m doing wrong.
Because it’s only fairly good. Wow!
So the difference in meaning is subtle, but it can be very important.
If you don’t pay attention, you might miss it.
When I came to the US I had to stop and think when people said ‘quite’. ‘Do they mean fairly or do they mean ‘very’? I still have to stop and think sometimes.
And I’ve had to learn the difference too, so I can understand Vicki’s family and friends.
Yeah. Here’s a real example. My British friend was visiting us and meeting Jay for the first time and they were just getting to know one another and talking about their families.
I was telling her about my father and how he spoke six languages and I said ‘He was quite good at languages’.
So my British friend was surprised and she said, ‘Why are you saying that? You said he spoke six languages.’
‘Yeah, he was quite good at languages.’
So my friend was thinking, ‘He’s being derogatory about his father? That’s not nice! If you speak six languages you’re a very good linguist – not just fairly good.
And I was thinking, ‘We’ve only just met. Why is this woman being so argumentative?’ It was like she wanted to pick a fight with me for no reason.
It’s the sort of misunderstanding that can damage relationships.
Yes, it’s dangerous because you might not realise it’s happening.
And one last thing before we stop.
Yeah?
I have some advice for any American guys who are going on a date with a British girl.
What’s that?
Don’t tell her she’s quite pretty. It happened to one of my friends on her first date with an American guy.
What! He told her she was quite pretty?
Yes, he was lucky to get a second date! And that’s it for today everyone.
If you’ve enjoyed this video please share it with a friend and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. Bye-bye now.
See you next Friday. Bye.

Click here to see more videos on British and American English.

• #1

I don’t understand the role of the word quite in this sentence:»quite often Laura heard the ringing thud of an ax..» Is the word ‘quite» an adverb?can you explain more detail about the meaning of this word in this sent.?thanks a lot

• #2

In the sentence «Quite» works as an adverb and means «very»

«Quite often» = «Very often»

• #3

Welcome

I’m not a native but the word’s putting more emphasis on the action , the event is happening very often not just once in a while.According to the dictionary , it is as an adverb.

Regards,

• #4

Yes, it’s an adverb. It modifies the adverb «often» which, in turn, modifies the verb «heard».

As for its meaning, it’s being used as an intensifier, like the words «rather» or «fairly», to mean «to a considerable/noticeable extent».

• #5

«As for its meaning, it’s being used as an intensifier, like the words ‘rather’ or ‘fairly’, to mean ‘to a considerable/noticeable extent’.»

^I would agree with that. «Quite» doesn’t necessarily mean «very.» It’s also considered slightly more formal. «Pretty often» would be a less formal way of expressing this phrase.

• #6

I agree! An Adverb or adjective either one. The word «Quite» serves to emphasize a repeated action in this case or a thought in others. Like if you say, «She is quite beautiful» = she is very beautiful. «That car is quite expensive» = «That car is pretty expensive» =»That car is very expensive». Good luck with your English, my friend!

• #7

Actually, I think it’s always an adverb. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

There are some idiomatic expressions in which one could contest this, however…. for example: «She is quite a lady.» There really is no way to interpret this on an empirical level.

panjandrum

Senior Member

English-Ireland (top end)

• #9

A very important point that it probably included in many of the previous threads is that the meaning of «quite» varies a great deal from one side of the Atlantic to the other. This difference is explored in AE/BE «quite» That was quite good.
In BE, quite is a lot less emphatic than it is in AE.

• #10

Also in BE it can mean either totally or rather (fairly).

She was quite silent with fear. (totally)
She was quite silent at the party. (fairly)

It’s odd that we manage to know which of these two divergent meanings is intended when, but we seem to.

The English language is filled with words that are spelled nearly the same but have very different meanings. Even a simple mistake can completely change the meaning of a sentence, or worse, render it nonsensical.

Many writers accidentally substitute the words quite and quiet for each other. We all make mistakes—even the best and most experienced writers are human.

Quite and quiet are both real words, so spell check software might not catch the mistake either. These substitutions can lead to embarrassment for the writer and confusion for the reader. Knowing the difference between these words is, therefore, very important.

Read on to find out whether you should choose quite or quiet in your writing, as well as a helpful trick to remember which of these confusing words is which.

What is the Difference Between Quite and Quiet?

In this article, I will compare quite vs. quiet. I will use each word in example sentences to illustrates its proper context. Plus, I’ll reveal a helpful trick to use when deciding whether to use quite or quiet in your writing.

When to Use Quite

What does quite mean? Quite is an adverb and is defined as to the maximum extent.

Here are a few examples,

• I have had quite enough of your games, Kris.
• The turkey is not quite ready.
• What delivers a thrill quite like the one that comes with a mystery gift in the mail? –The Wall Street Journal

Quite sometimes functions as an intensifier. It has a similar meaning to other intensifiers, like really or fairly. Here are two example sentences.

• The band is quite loud.
• “My instructions to you were quite clear,” Mariah said.

How Quite is Used

In his book Modern English Usage, Bryan Garner points out an interesting difference between quite when used as an intensifier in American and British English.

In American English, quite is generally used as a compliment.

• This pizza is quite good.

This would be taken as a compliment, similar to saying the pizza is really good or very good.

In British English, however, quite has almost the opposite connotation.

• This pizza is quite good.

This would be taken as a pejorative, similar to saying the pizza is fairly good. If I were to use fairly, as in “that place makes a fairly good pizza,” it would be more an admission of adequacy than a compliment, like I were about to add “but nothing special.”

When to Use Quiet

What does quiet mean? Quiet is sometimes an adjective, sometimes a noun, and sometimes a verb.

As an adjective, quiet means making little or no noise.

For example,

• Electric cars have very quiet engines.
• Officials have been quiet since then, and Herbert said Wednesday that “the issue seems to be dormant at best and maybe lost. We’ll have to see what happens.” –The Washington Post

As a noun, quiet means the absence of loud noise.

For example,

• All mom wanted was some peace and quiet.

As a verb, quiet means to stop something from making loud noise.

For example,

• Quiet down in there, we are trying to watch a movie.

Trick to Remember the Difference

Here is an easy, helpful mnemonic for remember quite vs. quiet.

You can remember that quiet refers to an absence of loud noise since it ends with a T, like the word silent. Silent also refers to an absence of loud noise, or more accurately, any noise at all.

Summary

Is it quite or quiet? Quite and quiet are two English words that are very easy to confuse, but they are actually different parts of speech.

• Quite is an adverb that means to the maximum extent.
• Quiet can be an adjective, noun, or a verb. In all cases it refers to an absence of loud noise.

There are no contexts in which quiet and quite are interchangeable. If you remember that quiet and silent both end with the letter T, and both deal with the lack of loud noises, you can make remember the difference between quite and quiet easier on yourself.

If you still need help remembering the difference between these two confusing words, you can always refer back to this article for a quick refresher.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

This is quite an interesting topic.

I believe the best way to determine the meaning is by context, but this is easier said than done.

In American English quite with gradable adjectives often means something like ‘very’, not ‘fairly/rather’.

Source: Michael Swan’s Practical English Usage, 489.1.

When American speakers say quite, they usually mean «very»: We’ve examined the figures quite thoroughly. In British English quite usually means «fairly»: The film was quite enjoyable, although some of the acting was weak. Speakers of British English sometimes use quite to mean «very», but only before words with an extreme meaning: The whole experience was quite amazing.

Source: Macmillan Dictionary usage note

When we use quite with a strong adjective it means the same as absolutely:

　　The food was quite awful. = The food was absolutely awful.
　　As a child he was quite brilliant. = As a child he was absolutely brilliant.

Source: British Council

1 

4