What’s the difference between quiet and quite?

This week we are looking at two words which are sometimes confused by learners of English: quiet and quite.

quiet

Quiet is an adjective. Someone or something that is quiet makes only a small amount of noise.

Bal said in a quiet voice, `I have resigned.’

The airlines have invested a lot of money in new, quieter aircraft.

If a place is quiet, there is very little noise there.

It was very quiet there; you could just hear the wind moving in the trees.

quite

Don’t confuse quiet /ˈkwaɪət/ with quite /kwaɪt/. You use quite to show that something is the case to a fairly great extent.

He was quite a long way away, on the rocks.

Find out more in our English Usage article.

This blogpost is based on Collins COBUILD English Usage, written for learners of English. For more examples of English usage points, please visit:  https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/english-usage.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

Related Articles

Other Articles

Months and Dates

In order to talk confidently about your plans in English, it’s useful to know some essential phrases that relate to months and dates. The months of the year in English are: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Read More

Formation of past and present tense of English verbs

The present tense of a regular verb is the same as the base form of the verb, except that an -s is added to the verb when it has a noun or he, she, or it as a subject. This form is called the 3rd person singular form. I live in the country. He likes his job. The window looks… Read More

Simple tenses

Simple tenses show moments in time, timeless states, and habitual or repetitive actions. The simple tenses consist of a single word.  There is a present simple tense: I like I live you like you live he likes he lives  I like my steak rare. It tastes good. Julie keeps a diary. Rob usually walks to school. There is also a past simple tense: I liked I lived you liked you lived he liked he lived  He liked to walk to the… Read More