Quite vs Alot - What's the difference?
quite | alot |
(lb) To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.
#With verbs, especially past participles.
#*, Book I:
#*:Thus when they had the witch disrobed quight , / And all her filthy feature open showne, / They let her goe at will, and wander wayes vnknowne.
#*2005 , Adrian Searle, The Guardian , 4 October:
#*:Nobuyoshi Araki has been called a monster, a pornographer and a genius - and the photographer quite agrees.
#With prepositional phrases and spatial adverbs.
#*1891 , (Thomas Nelson Page), On Newfound River :
#*:Margaret passed quite through the pines, and reached the opening beyond which was what was once the yard, but was now, except for a strip of flower-border and turf which showed care, simply a tangle of bushes and briars.
#*2010 , Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian , 30 October:
#*:Religion and parochial etiquette are probed to reveal unhealthy, and sometimes shockingly violent, internal desires quite at odds with the surface life of a town in which tolerance is preached.
#With predicative adjectives.
#*1914 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (The Son of Tarzan) :
#*:El Adrea was quite dead. No more will he slink silently upon his unsuspecting prey.
#*:
#*:In Lejeuneaceae vegetative branches normally originate from the basiscopic basal portion of a lateral segment half, as in the Radulaceae, and the associated leaves, therefore, are quite unmodified.
#With attributive adjectives, following an (especially indefinite) article; chiefly as expressing contrast, difference etc.
#*2003 , (Richard Dawkins), A Devil's Chaplain :
#*:When I warned him that his words might be offensive to identical twins, he said that identical twins were a quite different case.
#*2011 , Peter Preston, The Observer , 18 September:
#*:Create a new, quite separate, private company – say Murdoch Newspaper Holdings – and give it all, or most of, the papers that News Corp owns.
#Preceding nouns introduced by the indefinite article. Chiefly in negative constructions.
#*1791 , (James Boswell), (Life of Samuel Johnson) :
#*:I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him violently.
#*1920 , (John Galsworthy), (In Chancery) :
#*:And with a prolonged sound, not quite' a sniff and not ' quite a snort, he trod on Euphemia's toe, and went out, leaving a sensation and a faint scent of barley?sugar behind him.
#With adverbs of manner.
#*2009 , John F. Schmutz, The Battle of the Crater: A complete history :
#*:However, the proceedings were quite carefully orchestrated to produce what seemed to be a predetermined outcome.
#*2011 , Bob Burgess, The Guardian , 18 October:
#*:Higher education institutions in the UK are, quite rightly, largely autonomous.
(lb) In a fully justified sense; truly, perfectly, actually.
#Coming before the indefinite article and an attributive adjective. (Now largely merged with moderative senses, below.)
#*1898 , (Charles Gavrice), Nell of Shorne Mills :
#*:"My little plot has been rather successful, after all, hasn't it?" "Quite a perfect success," said Drake.
#*2001 , Paul Brown, The Guardian , 7 February:
#*:While the government claims to lead the world with its plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the figures tell quite a different story.
#With plain adjectives, past participles, and adverbs.
#*
#*:“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
#*2010 , Dave Hill, The Guardian , 5 November:
#*:London Underground is quite unique in how many front line staff it has, as anyone who has travelled on the Paris Metro or New York Subway will testify.
#Coming before the definite article and an attributive superlative.
#*1910 , ‘(Saki)’, "The Soul of Laploshka", Reginald in Russia :
#*:Laploshka was one of the meanest men I have ever met, and quite one of the most entertaining.
#*1923 , "The New Pictures", Time , 8 October:
#*:Scaramouche has already been greeted as the finest French Revolution yet brought to the screen-and even if you are a little weary of seeing a strongly American band of sans-culottes demolish a pasteboard Paris, you should not miss Scaramouche, for it is quite the best thing Rex Ingram has done since The Four Horsemen.
#Before a noun preceded by an indefinite article; now often with ironic implications that the noun in question is particularly noteworthy or remarkable.
#*1830 , Senate debate, 15 April:
#*:To debauch the Indians with rum and cheat them of their land was quite a Government affair, and not at all criminal; but to use rum to cheat them of their peltry, was an abomination in the sight of the law.
#*2011 , Gilbert Morris, The Crossing :
#*:“Looks like you and Clay had quite a party,” she said with a glimmer in her dark blue eyes.
#Before a noun preceded by the definite article.
#*1871 , (Anthony Trollope), (The Eustace Diamonds) :
#*:It is quite the proper thing for a lady to be on intimate, and even on affectionate, terms with her favourite clergyman, and Lizzie certainly had intercourse with no clergyman who was a greater favourite with her than Mr. Emilius.
#*2006 , Sherman Alexie, "When the story stolen is your own", Time , 6 February:
#*:His memoir features a child named Tommy Nothing Fancy who suffers from and dies of a seizure disorder. Quite the coincidence, don't you think?
#
To a moderate extent or degree; somewhat, rather.
* 2000 , Teaching Secondary English, ed. Daniel Sheridan. [in a tenth-grade student's paper]
* 2003 , Matt Janacone, Three by the Sea [http://print.google.com/print?id=CesAE2xl68QC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=X8TjIfaBBBesXWW1E38K-BUtUPU]
* 2005 , Aphrodite Jones, Cruel Sacrifice [From the suicidal patient's own writing.] [http://print.google.com/print?id=KtlMQCtBzygC&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&sig=2mA_bCMZr0l0dCLfhRWe4cBdmd4]
alot]
* 2004 , The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'' also compares ''alot'' to ''awhile.'' It states ''alot'' to be “still regarded as nonstandard” and notes 50 appearances in the British National Corpus, “almost entirely from three sources: e-mail, TV autocue data, and TV newscripts.” It suggests that some usages of ''alot'' in typewritten use are to be considered merely typos of the standard ''a lot though its appearance in handwriting and typescript is “more significant, as the shadow of things to come.” [http://print.google.com/print?id=UA5syoe1kc0C&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&sig=rtyA7J19FLKXuJ-65S78fDEnON8]
As a verb quite
is .As an adverb alot is
.As a noun alot is
.quite
English
Alternative forms
* quight (obsolete)Etymology 1
A development of (quit), influence by (etyl) quite.Adverb
(-)Usage notes
* This is a non-descriptive qualifier'', similar to fairly and rather and somewhat. Used where a plain adjective needs to be modified, but cannot be qualified. When spoken, the meaning can vary with the tone of voice and stress. ''He was quite big can mean anything from "not exactly small" to "almost huge".Synonyms
* absolutely, fully, thoroughly, totally, utterlyAntonyms
* (to a great extent) slightlyDerived terms
* quite a fewEtymology 2
From (etyl) quite.Statistics
*Anagrams
* quiet English degree adverbs English heteronyms English manner adverbs 1000 English basic words ----alot
English
Adverb
(-)Noun
(-)- There was alot' of sex discrimination in the 60’s. For one thing there was no sports for girls and in ' alot of schools the female teachers were not allowed to get married or they could be fired. [http://print.google.com/print?id=ejtdcf-taQkC&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&sig=t0Sp87KqxsH-UGYklzl72NMUz1Q]
- It was alot' of lumber, '''alot''' of condos, and Joe did not know '''alot''' about either of them, only that it was '''alot''' of money; he hated to throw his money into something he did not know ' alot about.
- She talked about death: “My philosophy on life is it could be alot' better. Like I would’ve never gotten into this mess if I wouldn’t have tried to commit suicide. Actually I was just trying to make myself sick. But then again it could be '''''alot worse! [...]”
Usage notes
This spelling of "a lot" is frequent in informal writing but not generally accepted by arbiters of English usage. Others view it as a legitimate s. * 1993 , The Columbia Guide to Standard American English'' calls ''alot “substandard” and notes that it is “increasingly found in Informal correspondence and student writing” and “has as yet received no sanction in print except on the op-ed and sports pages.”[http://books.google.com/books?id=L2ChiO2yEZ0C&q=alot* 1996 , The American Heritage Book of English Usage'' states that “''alot'' is still considered an error in print” but notes that standard words have formed by fusion of the article with a noun, such as ''another'' and ''awhile,'' and suggests the possibility that ''alot may, like them, eventually enter standard usage. [http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/0200.html] * 2004 , Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style (entry dated 2004) flatly states this to be a two-word expression. [http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/a.html
