4 ms·

This is not correct. "Quite few" is not correct English. EDIT: on reading some of the linked sources I realise I was wrong about this.

by pmg102 5y ago

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> "Quite few" is not correct English. I take it you don't speak English yourself? You can apply "quite" to any adjective, including "few".
- gknoy 5y ago
  While one could, it's not an idiom I (native speaker) have ever heard. I've heard "very few", but never "quite few", and I can see why hearing the latter might cause the listener/reader to mistakenly auto-correct it as "quite _a_ few".
  - weaksauce 5y ago
    I am a native English speaker and yes quite few is a thing that I have heard and said.
  - evilduck 5y ago
    But we don't only speak in idioms. "Quite" and "few" are some the least ambiguous words you can come across in English, "quite few" should be clear so long as you don't add words and substitute in your own meaning as the reader. I think the idiom "quite a few" is arguably worse to use in a diverse audience since it means the opposite of "a few" and is one of the only times "quite a" is used to negate the meaning of what follows.
    - BigJono 5y ago
      Using 'quite few' to mean the opposite of 'quite a few' as a non-native speaker is a terrible idea. It doesn't matter how correct it is, a large portion of native speakers are going to assume you mean 'quite a few' and have misheard or mispronounced it. It's not like either phrase is wanting for totally unambiguous synonyms.
- pmg102 5y ago
  Perhaps so. But it certainly sounds distinctly odd to me. Fairly confident I have never used or heard the construction myself. (Native speaker, 43, southern UK.)
  - dylan604 5y ago
  - Cederfjard 5y ago
    Non-idiomatic is not the same as incorrect. There’s no semantic or syntactic issue with the phrase.
  - TheRealNGenius 5y ago
    there are quite few ducks where I live
- autoexec 5y ago
  It works, but it's awkward. Same with "quite many" which doesn't get as much use
tomrod 5y ago
Hi! English speaker here. It's not common, but it is perfectly acceptable. Here is some data to back this up: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=quite+few%2C+quite+a+few&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cquite%20few%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cquite%20a%20few%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=quite+few%2C+q... Thanks!

This is not correct. "Quite few" is not correct English. EDIT: on reading some of the linked sources I realise I was wrong about this.

by pmg102 5y ago

This is not correct. "Quite few" is not correct English. EDIT: on reading some of the linked sources I realise I was wrong about this.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> "Quite few" is not correct English. I take it you don't speak English yourself? You can apply "quite" to any adjective, including "few".

gknoy 5y ago
While one could, it's not an idiom I (native speaker) have ever heard. I've heard "very few", but never "quite few", and I can see why hearing the latter might cause the listener/reader to mistakenly auto-correct it as "quite _a_ few".
- weaksauce 5y ago
  I am a native English speaker and yes quite few is a thing that I have heard and said.
- evilduck 5y ago
  But we don't only speak in idioms. "Quite" and "few" are some the least ambiguous words you can come across in English, "quite few" should be clear so long as you don't add words and substitute in your own meaning as the reader. I think the idiom "quite a few" is arguably worse to use in a diverse audience since it means the opposite of "a few" and is one of the only times "quite a" is used to negate the meaning of what follows.
  - BigJono 5y ago
    Using 'quite few' to mean the opposite of 'quite a few' as a non-native speaker is a terrible idea. It doesn't matter how correct it is, a large portion of native speakers are going to assume you mean 'quite a few' and have misheard or mispronounced it. It's not like either phrase is wanting for totally unambiguous synonyms.
pmg102 5y ago
Perhaps so. But it certainly sounds distinctly odd to me. Fairly confident I have never used or heard the construction myself. (Native speaker, 43, southern UK.)
- dylan604 5y ago
- Cederfjard 5y ago
  Non-idiomatic is not the same as incorrect. There’s no semantic or syntactic issue with the phrase.
- TheRealNGenius 5y ago
  there are quite few ducks where I live
autoexec 5y ago
It works, but it's awkward. Same with "quite many" which doesn't get as much use

tomrod 5y ago

Hi! English speaker here. It's not common, but it is perfectly acceptable. Here is some data to back this up: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=quite+few%2C+quite+a+few&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cquite%20few%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cquite%20a%20few%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=quite+few%2C+q... Thanks!