Rather, quite, fairly, pretty
Rather, quite, fairly y pretty: estas cuatro palabras, (fundamentalmente, adverbios de grado) son usados con constancia por nativos o hablantes con mucho nivel en el lenguaje cotidiano.
Son palabras cuyos matices marcan sus diferencias. Aprende a usar estos adverbios en tus frases correctamente.
Rather: tiene el sentido de ‘más de lo normal’ y se usa también con comparativos en la forma ‘rather than’
(‘Rather’ modifica a adverbios, adjetivos, y, verbos).
- The performance went rather well I must say.
- How did your concert go? Oh, it went rather nicely. I’m over the moon.
- Jane is rather tired, I think she’ll take a nap soon.
- I rather like going to the centre with you.
Quite: lleva el sentido de ‘rather’, ‘a lot’ o ‘completely’
‘Quite’ es casi intercambiable con ‘rather’. ‘Quite’ puede modificar verbos, adverbios y adjetivos.
- The teacher was happy with your thesis, it was quite good you know.
- I’m quite angry with you for having stolen my notebook.
- It’s quite impossible to fly to the sun.
- It’s quite a hard problem to solve.
- I quite liked his company.
Fairly: como ‘rather’ y ‘quite’, modifica adjetivos y otros adverbios, aunque ‘fairly’ es de menor grado, incluso lleva el sentido de ‘bajo el nivel’ o ‘no lo mejor’
- You did fairly well in your math test I suppose, but nothing to be proud about.
- James is fairly convinced he’ll go abroad on an Erasmus.
- I’m fairly happy these days, I think.
Pretty: es casi idéntico a ‘rather’, aunque es un poco menos formal, y también solo modifica adjetivos y adverbios
- I’m pretty sick of this guy always interrupting us while we’re speaking.
- You’re pretty bright for your age, I must admit.
- How is Maria? She is pretty well.