Medium intensification
A medium degree of intensification is expressed by the four adverbs quite, pretty, rather, fairly. Within the medium degree, we can recognize four sub-degrees in order of descending intensification:
It’s quite cold here in winter.
It’s rather cold here in winter.
It’s pretty cold here in winter. (informal, spoken style)
It’s fairly cold here in winter.
Quite denotes moderate but unequivocal intensification of the adjective, whether this is appreciative as in quite pleased, quite satisfactory, quite nice, unappreciative as in quite dangerous, quite pessimistic, quite nasty, or neutral as in quite tall, quite cheap/expensive.
She felt there was something not quite right about the room.
It’s quite straightforward to Carlisle – just follow the signs.
In informal speech that as intensifier adds the factor of being contrary to expectation:
I didn’t expect it to be that cheap.
Politeness or lack of certainty are often the motivations of the use of quite, as in I’m not quite sure. Quite is used to modify not only adjectives but also verbs and adverbs: I don’t quite know, I didn’t quite understand.
Rather can lower the force of a statement by indicating a certain limited degree, as in it looks rather difficult. It becomes related to indirectness when used in situations which warrant a stronger word such as very or extremely. Politeness is sometimes the motivation for the use of rather, for example, to avoid direct criticism of others, I’m rather worried about your exam results, or to mitigate the expression of the speaker’s own emotions, as in I was rather pleased at winning the lottery. At the same time it implies that a larger degree or extent is to be understood, for instance very worried, very pleased. This ability to say one thing while implying another makes rather a subtle tool in interpersonal interaction. Rather is a word that has contributed greatly to the notion of ‘English understatement’, as in:
Buying that second-hand car may turn out to be a rather costly mistake.
Pretty expresses the notion of quite but not completely. It is used with all types of gradable adjective, but has an approximative value characteristic of informal speech; e.g. She’s pretty good-looking, I feel pretty tired after that long walk, That film was pretty awful, don’t you think? Like rather, it can also imply a stronger degree, especially when expressing a negative evaluation: That paper of his was a pretty poor effort (= very poor). The idiomatic combinations pretty well, pretty much can modify certain adjectives and determinatives, for instance, pretty well impossible, pretty much the same.
He’s going to have a pretty bad headache for a while, and the cut is pretty deep, so it’s bound to be sore [JXW]
Fairly as a modifier indicates an almost large or reasonable degree of a quality (fairly accurate, fairly well-off). It can be used more easily with favorable and neutral adjectives than with strongly unfavorable ones, as with fairly honest, fairly intelligent, fairly reasonable, but not ?fairly dishonest, ?fairly foolish, ?fairly unreasonable:
He seems to have a fairly good idea of what he wants to do.
Other adverbs which suggest that something is very close to having the quality named are: almost, nearly, roughly, approximately, partly, largely.
The following ironical statement illustrates a normal everyday use of intensified adjectives in English:
A remarkable entirely new economic cure-all has just emerged from widely intensive tests. The miracle drug, called taxcuts, is the most versatile drug since penicillin. If applied in sufficiently liberal doses, it will make people more hard-working and less worried about their financial problems.
