Adjective Mitigators

Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. When we want to make an adjective less strong we use these words: fairly · rather · quite

At the end of the day, we were rather tired.
The film wasn't great, but it was quite exciting.

and in informal English: pretty

We had a pretty good time at the party.

When we use quite with a normal adjective, it makes the adjective less strong:

The food was quite bad.
The food was bad but not very bad.

My nephew is quite clever.
My nephew is clever but not very clever.

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But when we use quite with a strong adjective, it means the same as absolutely:

The food was quite awful.
The food was absolutely awful.

As a child he was quite brilliant.
As a child he was absolutely brilliant.

We use these words and phrases as mitigators:


She's a bit younger than I am.
It takes two hours on the train but it is a little bit longer by road.
This one is rather bigger.

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We use slightly and rather as mitigators with comparative adjectives in front of a noun:

This is a slightly more expensive model than that.
This is a rather bigger one than that.

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