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.

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.

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.