a kind of and quite

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ju

Key Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2006
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
Shall I say the implication of a kind of and quite are the same?

eg

1) It's a kind of cold.


2) It's quite cold.


Tks / ju
 

engee30

Key Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
Polish
Home Country
Poland
Current Location
England
Shall I say the implication of a kind of and quite are the same?

eg

1) It's a kind of cold.


2) It's quite cold.


Tks / ju

♥♦♣♠ NOT A TEACHER ♥♦♣♠
I'm quite sure you wanted to say It's kind of cold, which is not the same as It's a kind of cold - the latter would normally mean that you're talking about a cold, an illness.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ju

engee30

Key Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
Polish
Home Country
Poland
Current Location
England
  • Like
Reactions: Ju

Khosro

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Iran
Shall I say the implication of a kind of and quite are the same?

eg

1) It's a kind of cold.


2) It's quite cold.


Tks / ju

I think you can put "quite" instead of "kind of" (though "quite" is more formal) but you can not put "kind of" instead of "quite" in all cases. Am I right or not? i looked it up in 2 dictionaries and I saw different meanings for "quite":

1. to the greatest extent; completely or absolutely you're quite right quite the opposite
2. (not used with a negative) to a noticeable or partial extent; somewhat she's quite pretty
(Collins dictionary)

1- to some degree: ........
2- completely: ...
(Macmillan dictionary)

I guess we can not use "kind of" instead of "quite" if quite means the first meaning in Collins or the second one in Macmillan.

Ofcourse I am not a native English speaker but there is something in the difinition of "quite" which stops me of saying: "the implications of "kind of" and "quite" are the same", sometimes it sounds to me that they are in opposition.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ju

allenman

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
it sounds to me that they are in opposition.
No. Just a degree of comparison. As the dictionary reference you gave states, "kind of" means "a little bit". "Quite" means "very". (For these types of comparisons).

Not a teacher.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
.... "Quite" means "very". (For these types of comparisons).

Not a teacher.

Students should pay special attention to the words I've underlined. Whether or not 'quite' means 'very' depends on whether the following adjective is gradeable:

If you're quite tired, you could carry on doing what you're doing (but would quite like to stop soon).

If you're quite exhausted, you're absolutely exhausted.


The same is true with other gradeable/non-gradeable pairs. The 'quite' in 'quite interesting' isn't the same sort of 'quite' as the one in 'quite enthralling' or 'quite rivetting'; 'quite hungry' has a different sort of 'quite' from 'quite famished'...


b
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top