When do we use "Quite" and "Rather”?

Please elucidate.

Quite usually means 'fairly' or 'a medium amount'.

I feel quite sleepy now.

Carrying out the repairs of the machine can be quite daunting.

The discussion was quite interesting.

We were quite taken aback by her reaction.

Stress with quite.

In speech, whether we stress quite or the adjective makes a difference to the meaning.

**** If we stress quite, it means 'fairly but not very'.

The meaning is negative.

The exhibition was quite good, but I've seen better ones.

I get up quite early, but not as early as you do.

**** If we stress the adjective, the meaning is positive; however, not as positive as very).

The exhibition was quite good. I enjoyed looking around it.

I got up quite early. I had a lot of tasks to do.

Quite or Rather?

When we make a favorable comment, we usually say quite, not rather.

The concert was quite interesting.

It's quite warm now.

It was quite nice meeting friends after a long time.

In unfavorable comments, we usually say rather, but quite is possible.

The concert was rather boring/ quite boring.

It was rather awkward/quite awkward taking my suitcase on the underground.

Rather in a favorable comment means 'to a surprising or unusual degree'.

It's rather warm for October.(It isn't usually so warm.)

I didn't know Malcolm can dance. He's rather good at it.

I expect Maria's jokes were awful. Actually they were rather funny.

We can use rather with a comparative but not quite.

The training took rather longer than we expected.

Quite meaning 'completely'.

With some adjectives, quite means 'completely' or 'totally'.

What you said is quite wrong. (Completely wrong)

The suggestion is quite absurd.(totally absurd)

His financial condition is quite hopeless.

Quite means 'completely' with these adjectives:

wrong, extraordinary, dreadful, amazing, awful, brilliant, certain, dead, right, sure, useless, true, false, hopeless, impossible, perfect, horrible, different, alone, ridiculous.

Compare the uses of quite:

I'm quite tired.(fairly)

The advice was quite useful. I got two or three opportunities.

I'm quite exhausted. (Completely)

The advice was quite useless. It did me no good.

HAPPY LEARNING!!!!