These words are tricky! 'Rather' can mean basically the same thing as 'quite'. Here are some examples: 1) 'It's rather cold.' = 'It's quite cold.' Using 'rather' in this sense sounds a bit odd and out-dated, although it is still used. Personally I would use 'quite' (or very/really/extremely/fairly depending on how cold it is). 2) 'I did rather well in my exams' = 'I did quite well in my exams' Again, 'rather' sounds a bit odd here, although would still be understood. 3) 'I rather like it' = 'I quite like it' If in doubt, use 'quite'! But most of the time if you're not sure, you could just leave the word out and still get your meaning across. (It's cold. I did well in my exams. I like it). HOWEVER, rather has two other meanings: 1) 'I would rather go to Paris than London', meaning 'I would prefer to go to Paris than London'. Used fairly commonly. (You definitely CANNOT use 'quite' in this case - that would not make sense at all!) 2) 'I like winter, or rather, I like Christmas' = More precisely what I actually like about winter is Christmas. This is not used very often as it's fairly formal. (Again you definitely CANNOT use 'quite' this this - makes no sense!) Quite also has another meaning - 'not quite' can mean 'not completely': 'I'm not quite sure what he's talking about' = 'I'm not completely sure what he's talking about' 'It's not quite full' = 'It's not completely full' 'I didn't quite understand what you said' = 'I didn't completely understand what you said' I hope this helps :) Don't worry if you find it complicated - these are non-essential words that will come in time :)

"Rather" is sometimes used as a synonym for "quite" and "very" (all adverbs) in the UK, though many people would now consider it old-fashioned. I don't use it often in this way. e.g. That glass of wine was rather good. "Rather" or "but rather" is used as a conjunction to mean "instead" "rather than" means "as opposed to" "would rather + verb" means "would prefer to + verb".