"Quite" and "rather" in Great Britain vs. U.S

[thorny_locust]

@kenobi_65

From them, I learned that “nice,” in the context of when they were growing up in England and Ireland, is not nearly as positive a statement as it is in the U.S. For them, “nice” is what you say when you feel that you have to be politic or kind in what you say about something or someone, but that it’s not particularly special – it seems to be effectively similar to “it’s OK” or “it’s all right” in American terms.

I’ve heard it used – and used it myself – in America to mean ‘I need to make some sort of pleasant noise here even though I don’t actually like the thing very much.’ Think, ‘Oh, that’s nice’.

I’ve also used ‘Nice!’, and heard it used, to mean ‘That’s a really neat thing/accomplishment!’

Some of it’s in the tone of voice; but some of it is just plain confusing. Which is why one can get away with using it for ‘I don’t think much of that but I need to say something good about it for social reasons’ – because whoever you say it to can’t be entirely sure that you didn’t really mean to say it’s good.

– in the OP post, I would take “quite a lot” to be more money than “rather a lot”.

@Stanislaus

Quite used to mean (in British English) “absolutely, to the fullest extent, utterly”. You can see this in older novels, with characters who wish to double-check something asking people “Are you quite sure the duchess saw nothing?” They’re not asking “Are you somewhat or partially sure?” They want complete certainty. You would also see it used more rhetorically, as in “If you’re quite finished, we can get on” meaning “If you’ve nothing else to say” (meaning, “Shut up”).

In those contexts, I’d expect exactly those same meanings in current American English.

[Mangetout]

From the preface of a book of comedy scripts by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie:

The authors would like to make public their immense feelings of gratitude towards Roger Ordish, Nick Symons and Jon Canter who produced, produced and script-edited “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” Series 2 respectively. It would be no exaggeration to say that their contributions towards the programme were quite useful.

[Acsenray]

@PatrickLondon

A lot depends on tone of voice and context. It can, after all, be said sarcastically, as in Keeping Up Appearances :

I think this is the key. Literally, they are merely intensifiers, like “very,” but depending on context, especially tone of voice, they can mean something else.