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The words quiet (two syllables) and quite (one syllable) are frequently confused.
Quiet! Please be quite. Quiet!
I encountered this bit of dialogue in a mystery published by W.W. Norton. A character is being kidnapped and the words are spoken by one of the kidnappers. Obviously all three words are meant to be quiet.
Quiet can be used as an adjective meaning “of little activity,” or as a noun meaning “tranquility” or “silence.”
After lunch the children enjoyed an hour of quiet play. (adjective)
We enjoyed the quiet of the countryside. (noun)
Quite is an adverb and has the sense of “totally” or “completely.”
She was quite exhausted after the warm-up exercise.
Quiet can also be used as a verb meaning “to cause to be quiet.”
The man behind us shouted “Quiet down, can’t you?”
The leader quieted the protesters so the mayor could be heard.
Note: the words “quieten” and “quietened” are not standard American usage.
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No they’re not. These two words are never confused. You’re kidding right? This would only happen as a typo.
Yes, it was a typo, but there it was, in a printed book.
Someone mixed them up.
Tom, if the confusion happened on a printed book, I think it could very easily happen around the Internet, don’t you think
?
“Quite” should be avoided as it rarely adds meaning.
I see this typo very often! Mostly when people are trying to say “quiet”…they type “quite”. I am surprised at how often this happens.
Another very common “mistake” is the confusion on the part of people when it comes to using “to” and “too” and “there” , “their” and “they’re”. Many, many people do not know the proper use of and/or spellings of these words. It is amazing.
oh ,no, have a friend to regularly uses “quite” when he means “quiet”.. drives me nuts…and the same person sent an email saying ” should of joined us for lunch” …hmmmm…