I'm quite all right now

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

At a doctor’s

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Man: Well, you fell down. But don’t worry; you’re going to be all right.
Doctor: Oh, oh, my head. Such a headache.
Man: Oh, would you like some painkillers? Some pills to take away the pain?
Doctor: No, no, I’m the doctor; you’re the patient. You don’t give me pills. I give you pills.
Man: Well, I was just trying to help.
Doctor: No, thank you very much for trying to help, but I’m quite all right now.
Man: Well, are you going to finish my check-up now? Are you going to check my heart and my lungs?
Doctor: Oh, yes, of course. Sit up here, please.

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I’m quite all right now.

What does “quite” mean in this sentence?

Does it mean “somewhat” or does it mean “completely”?

Thank you

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It modifies the expression “I’m alright” and gives it more weight.

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3

Quite means fairly, rather, reasonably etc. (It is not somewhat)

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Thank you so much, Torsten :rose:

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Thank you so much, Anglophile :rose:

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Quite is a weird word. It refers to quantity or degree. It is most commonly used with ‘not’. ‘Not quite’ means almost. ‘Quite’ without the word ‘not’ means ‘enough’ or ‘plenty’.

  1. I am not quite done.
    This means very close to being done.

  2. I need $200 to to buy a new video card for my computer. I don’t quite have enough money yet.
    This would not mean I have $100. It would probably mean I have $170 or $190. I only need a little bit more.

  3. There will be 30 children at the birthday party. If you have 55 pieces of candy to give to the children, you don’t quite have enough to give them two pieces each.

  4. There will be 30 children at the birthday party. If you have 65 pieces of candy, you have quite enough to give them two pieces each.

#4 means you have plenty of candy. So it is not a concern. ‘Quite alright’ is similar. The doctor is quite alright, so it is not a concern.

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Thank you so much, NearlyNapping :rose:

Very nice explanation.

I have one more question:

Is “completely” a synonym for “quite” in this case?

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Sorry for the delay. I just noticed this question. Sometimes completely can be used as a synonym for quite.

In the four sentences in my last post, ‘completely’ could be used in the first one, but not in the other three. I think the difference is that completely does not work well with countable nouns. If you used completely in that way it would be understood, but is awkward.

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Thank you so much, NearlyNapping :hibiscus:

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