43.    Quite

This is a confusing word because it has two meanings.

A.    It means 'completely' when it is used with a word or phrase which can express the idea of completeness (all right, certain, determined, empty, finished, full, ready, right, sure, wrong etc.) and when it is used with a very strong adjective/adverb such as amazing, extraordinary, horrible, perfect:

The bottle was quite empty.      

You 're quite wrong.

It's quite extraordinary; I can't understand it at all.

B.     When used with other adjectives/adverbs, quite has a slightly weakening effect, so that quite good is normally less complimentary than good, quite used in this way has approximately the same meaning as fairly but its strength can vary very much according to the way it is stressed:

quite good (weak quite, strong good) is very little less than 'good'.

quite good (equal stress) means 'moderately good'.

quite good (strong quite, weak good) is much less than 'good'.

The less quite is stressed the stronger the following adjective/adverb becomes. The more quite is stressed the weaker its adjective/ adverb becomes.

Note the position of a/an:

quite a long walk      quite an old castle