Use of fairly

0 No. And "pretty" won't work either. But "somewhat" will work. 02br
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00John paints [*fairly / *pretty / somewhat] better than Sue. 02br
00Sue has a [*fairly / *pretty / somewhat] better attitude than John. 02br
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00CJ 0-

0 Thank you for the answer!!! 0-

0 I think "rather" can be used too, or am I wrong? It may be optionated, though. 0-

0 'rather', like 'fairly' and 'pretty', cannot be used with a comparitive, only with a 'standard' (sorry, I don't know the jargon) adjectives. 02br
00"Much", "Considerably", "A lot", "A bit", and as was said before, "Somewhat" can all be used with compartives, to name but a few. 0-

0 It may not be very grammatical, but it is used, though... But then not all uses are standard English. Thank you, Meneldil 0-

0 I wouldn't find 'rather' offensive, with a comparative: 02br
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001. It's rather better than we expected. 02br
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00But I think the 'rather' here would have the meaning 'a little bit', rather than 'quite' or 'surprisingly', as here: 02br
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002. She's rather pretty, don't you think? 02br
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00That said, 'ra

0 Thank you all, especially to pieanne ! (Thank you very much..!) 02br
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00.... I've been using these expressions whenever I like, without knowing the rule.... 0-