rarely表否定,几乎不.fairly、rather、pretty还有quite、very都是副词,表程度。强弱关系:fairly → quite → rather / pretty → very
fairly:语气最弱,通常译为“还算可以、相当地”,如I know him fairly well, but I wouldn't say we were really close friends. 我相当了解他,但并不是说我们是真正的密友。
quite、rather:可直接修饰动词,如我完全同意你I quite agree with you、我们很喜欢那本书We rather like the book。其余不可以。
quite:可修饰不可分级的形容词(如right, wrong, ready, full, empty, perfect, impossible, alone, unique等)通常只用quite,此时quite并不表示“相当”或“很”,而表示“完全”:You’re quite right (wrong). 你完全正确。
rather:只有 rather 可以与比较级和副词 too (太)连用:It’s rather warmer today. 今天暖和多了。This one is rather too large. 这个稍大了一点。【注】quite 有时也与比较级连用, 但通常只限于 quite better (身体健康)这一表达中。
pretty语气与rather相当,但没有Rather正式,也没有rather的特殊用法。