fairly、pretty、quite与rather这些程度副词都有“相当、颇”之意。
fairly : 语意最弱，多用于褒义，表示适度地、尚可的意思。不可与too或比较级连用。
- She's fairly tall.
她个头比较高。 - I'm fairly sure that this is the right address.
我相当肯定这个地址没错。 - We get on fairly well.
我们相处得不错。 - I saw her fairly recently.
我不久前见过她。
pretty : 用法与rather相似。常用于非正式文体。
- The house has four bedrooms, so it's pretty big.
这座房子有4个卧室，因此非常大。 - I'm pretty sure it was her.
我相当肯定是她。 - I've got a pretty good idea of how to get there.
我很清楚该怎么去那里。
quite含义比fairly稍强，与不定冠词连用时，一般放在不定冠词之前。
- I'm quite tired but I can certainly walk a little further.
我有些累，但肯定还能再走一会儿。 - There was quite a lot of traffic today but yesterday was even busier.
今天的交通够拥挤的，不过昨天更繁忙。 - It was quite a difficult job.
那工作着实难做。 - He's quite attractive but not what I'd call gorgeous.
他相当有魅力，但称不上我心目中的美男子。 - It would be quite a nuisance to write to everyone.
给所有人都写信准是件麻烦事。
rather语气比quite强，褒意贬意无可使用。可与too和比较级连用。
- It's rather cold today, isn't it?
今天相当冷，是不是？ - That's rather a difficult book - here's an easier one for you.
那本书有点儿难——这本对你来说容易些。 - The train was rather too crowded for a comfortable journey.
这趟列车上相当拥挤，旅途不太舒服。 - She answered the phone rather sleepily.
她睡意朦胧地接电话。 - I rather doubt I'll be able to come to your party.
我说不太准能不能去参加你的聚会。
