quite an
105
3.5
- idiom
- /kwaɪt æn/
:
todo un
- But honestly, it is quite an impressive car.
- quite an experience
So kind of shows you that he's had quite an influence on Disney.
- So kind of shows you that he's had quite an influence on Disney.
- And I thought, wow, this is quite an amazing moment.
- We, we ran up quite an expensive bill.
- But honestly, it is quite an impressive car.
- And she found that in my dad who was quite an unpredictable, violent man.
- So this was quite an experience teaching to an empty room.
- Let's say that we do hit quite an aggressive recession.
- This was quite an upsetting conversation, I must say.
- It's it's it's quite an odd and sad ending, really.
- So it has been quite an exciting week for us.
- So you've got quite an interesting background.
- Well, I think it's been, I think it's been quite an interesting one.
Examples
-
So Paul himself is, you know, quite an extraordinary person.
-
So it has been quite an exciting week for us.
-
And I thought, wow, this is quite an amazing moment.
-
So it has been quite an amazing year for myself.
-
And so this is quite an important thing to say.
-
What a fantastic idea and quite an important one, as it turns out.
-
I had quite an interesting night actually.
-
So you've got quite an interesting background.
-
She was quite an inspiration.
-
This is quite an impressive achievement for the team.
Synonyms
∞
3.2
A phrase that shows someone or something is very noticeable and impressive
77
8.1
Very impressive or very difficult
Very impressive in a way that surprises people
Antonyms
How Impressive
1
7.7
105
3.5
- Informal
694
7.9
- Informal
- Informal
∞
1.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
quite + an
The sequence 'quite an' is compositionally built from the degree adverb 'quite' modifying a noun phrase introduced by the indefinite article 'an', so its meaning as an intensifier (e.g. 'quite an experience' = 'a very/remakable experience') is directly derivable from the constituents. Although 'quite' can vary in strength regionally (fairly vs very), a B1 learner who knows 'quite' and 'an' will generally infer the emphatic sense.
Etymology
Quite an comes from using quite as a strong word like 'completely' together with the article an before one thing. Imagine someone seeing a big surprise and saying 'quite an adventure' to show it was really remarkable, so the phrase now means 'very impressive or unusual'.