I NEVER KNEW THAT WAS WHAT AMERICANS MEANT WHEN THEY SAID “QUITE”
WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME
SUDDENLY THAT ONE SONG THAT GOES “HELLO I MISS YOU QUITE TERRIBLY” MAKES LIKE A MILLION TIMES MORE SENSE
are you serious british people
i feel like this means i’ve been overestimating your enthusiasm about things for my entire life
And thus we have defined British/American relations for the last 3 decades
“Quite” is extremely dependant on intonation too. “Really quite attractive” with rising tone is “yes, they are attractive”, but “quite attractive”, with falling tone and drawn out “quite” is “I’ve seen better”. “It was quite good actually!” with rising tone means it was good against expectation; “it was quite good i suppose” with falling or neutral tone is “it was alright but not great”.
“Quite” as an intensifier is quite (ha) archaic, and usually only prefixes other hyperbolic words such as “exquisite”. It’s the opposite of an intensifier, it’s a qualifier – it usually makes the following word milder.
suchasinistergame 