Saturday, December 3, 2016

word choice - "Pretty" versus "quite"



Is there any difference between using pretty, and quite, in the following sentences?



I am pretty good at playing soccer.





I am quite good at playing soccer.




How are you?
I am quite well.




How are you?
I am pretty well.




The reason I am asking is that, in Italian, the translation of pretty, and quite, are respectively piuttosto, and abbastanza, which have very similar meanings.



Answer



Pretty is "to a moderately high degree; fairly", whereas quite can have two meanings: "to the utmost or most absolute extent or degree; absolutely; completely" or "to a certain or fairly significant extent or degree; fairly: ". So they may be synonymous; sometimes may be not.


In each of the contexts you have cited, whenever you would use "quite" it can mean either "more" than "pretty" or equal to "pretty". So use the words wisely as per context


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