> Other English exercises on the same topic: Frequent mistakes [Change theme]
	> Similar tests: - Placement test beginners: Check your spelling - Past simple or present perfect - Although / in spite of / despite - Differences between Like and As - Again/ back - FOR and its use - Do or Make? - Bill, tip, fare, fine, fee
	> Double-click on words you don't understand

Quite or Quiet

                     ‘QUITE  ? or QUIET ? ’

These two words are often confused by students, or used one for the other ! 

1) QUIET :  (2 syllables) ['kwai/0t] : It may be either -  an adjective which means ‘not very active’, ‘calm’.

                        - a noun = ‘calm', ‘silence’.

ex : After lunch, it’s pleasant to enjoy a moment of quiet rest, (= adjective), reading or playing cardgames, especially in Summer.

ex : We enjoyed the quiet of a walk in the mountains … (= noun)

               It's also    - a verb, used when requiring calm and silence !  ex : The teacher quieted the students so that the lesson could start. 

2) QUITE : (only one syllable) ['kwait] =  adverb. In the United Kingdom, it has 2 meanings : 

       a) = rather.  ex : This film is quite good.

When it means ‘rather’, quite is often followed by  a/an + + adj. + noun :  ex :  This is quite an interesting story ! 

This usage isn't frequent at all in the US where it is often replaced by ‘pretty’ or 'fairly'.( also used in informal British English)

      b) = totally, completely, considerably, positively : This meaning is very frequent in American English. 

In the US, the speaker’s stress and intonation will show you which is meant : ex : Your essay is quite good (= fairly good — it could be better); Your essay is quite good (= very good, especially when this is unexpected). In the UK, quite ( = totally) precedes adjectives that describe an extreme state ('non-gradable' adjectives).

ex : August was quite cold and rainy (fairly cold and rainy), not quite a perfect Summer  month..

ex : Yesterday, he was quite tired (fairly tired), but today, he’s really quite exhausted !

      c)  Quite can also be used in front of  a verb : ex : I quite appreciate your choice …= I totally like the choice you've made ! 

There are some expressions : Quite right = totally right ;  quite a sight (used to stress) = a sight which is really exceptional ; quite a few = a fair number of  ; quite a while = during  a fairly long moment  ; I quite agree = I totally agree !

QUIET :

QUITE :

Twitter Share
English exercise "Quite or Quiet" created by here4u with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from here4u]
Click here to see the current stats of this English test

Please log in to save your progress.

1) This is quite a difficult wordquite difficult a wordquiet a difficult worda difficult quiet wordI don't know to spell ! I'll have to check in a dictionary ...
2) Would you, please, keeping quietkeep quitekeep quietkeeping quiteI don't know while your Mom is speaking ? You're disturbing her ...
3) The house they live in is quite bigquite and bigquiet bigquiet quite bigI don't know ! They'll have room to put us up ! ...
4) It's impossible quitequiet impossiblequietly impossiblequite impossibleI don't know for him to keeping quitekeeping quietkeep quietkeep quiteI don't know for more than ten minutes ... I'll have to watch him closely !
5) I'm sorry I kept you waiting, but I have quite important a decisionquite an important decisionan important quiet decisionI don't know to make !
6) Are you quite sure toquite sure withquite sure ofquiet sure byI don't know the result ? I think I have lost much less than what you're saying ...
7) Yes, I know he's quiet quitequite quietquite quietlyquietly quiteI don't know at the moment, but he can be very unruly sometimes ...
8) The judge said : ' Quite, pleasePlease, quite quietQuite quietly, pleaseQuiet, pleaseI don't know ! If not, I'll have the courthouse evacuated ! '
9) I know he's quite a good pianistquietly good a pianistquite good a pianista pianist quite goodI don't know, but he's not famous yet !
10) She was playing dolls quietlyquietly quitequitelyI don't know when I arrived home to take her to school ...
11) I understand quitequite understandunderstand quietlyquiet understandI don't know that he doesn't want to contradict you, but quiet keepingkeeping quitekeeping quietquite keeping quietI don't know is stupid in these circumstances !