fairly 与 rather 用法辨异

■崔长平 河南遂平一高（463100）

1）rather在语气上比fairly更强烈。 This is a fairly easy book. 这本书还算浅易。

This is a rather easy book. 这本书太容易了。

2）fairly通常修饰说明容易被人接受的一面；rather多修饰说明不易被人所接受的一面。 This physics problem is fairly easy. This physics problem is rather difficult. It is fairly warm today. It was rather cold yesterday.

3）rather可以与too连用，相当于much too，far too等，意为“实在太„„”，“极为”。rather也可以用来修饰形容词以及副词的比较级，fairly则不能。

This car is rather larger than he wants. It was rather / much / far too easy.

4）rather 可以置于不定冠词之前或之后，而fairly一般应置于不定冠词之后。在这一点上，rather与quite用法相同。

I think that would be a rather nice excuse. He was rather a silly creature.

It was a fairly large house of yellow brick.

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