12 Determiners - Quite & Rather

Determiners are modifiers of nouns. They can provide a wide range of information. Determiner words are put before a noun to show what the noun refers to.

Quite gives a meaning more powerful than a little but less than very.
Rather gives a less powerful meaning than quite. It means to some extent, somewhat.

Quite in affirmative sentences can give the meaning of “a little”. In negative sentences it gives the meaning of “not completely”. We can use Quite with “the”, “a”, “some” and nouns.

When Rather is used with positive words, it shows an unexpected feeling.

The sentence structures of these determiners are as follows:

• Subject + rather + adverb or adjective + complement;
• Subject + quite + adverb, adjective, article, determiners or noun + complement.

• Practicing as a lawyer is quite good but it is also stressful.
• I am quite happy about the job I got but it is not the job I want.
• The professionalism in this office is rather good. I am surprised.
• It is not quite a good idea to ask for a raise nowadays.
• She rather likes to being self-employed.
• Company is thinking that the contract they offered is rather useless.

Quite and Rather are used to modify adjectives and adverbs to express the feeling.

Quite has a more powerful meaning than Rather. We use Rather mainly with negative words and negative ideas.