From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Sat Mar 21 2009 - 16:10:27 CST
> >> Philippe Verdy <verdy underscore p at wanadoo dot fr> wrote:
> > I used the term volontarly with a "quite" just before to
> moderate it.
>
> In all the dialects of English that I am familiar with,
> "quite" in that context emphasizes rather than moderates, so
> that your statement had exactly the opposite effect of what
> you evidently intended.
I've always used or read the term "quite" as a way to moderate the force of
an expression, assuming a translation of the French conditional conjugation
and the adverbal expression "quelque peu" (i.e. for some undeterminate final
state that was still far of being reached but to which it would easily point
to if continued in the same direction), in opposition to "presque" (nearly,
almost) that is used to qualify a well determined goal that can be
considered reached from many views.
Now that I realize that this word actually emphasizes the meaning instead of
reducing its force (I have just verified and it was not was I supposed it
meant, thanks for pointing it), then I'm "quite" sorry (very sorry then)
that this has caused troubles.
Don't insist on this unimportant term, I realize it was misunderstood, even
if there was the colon ":" just after to explicit what was really intended.
The sentence was not alone.
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