AEE 2639: Quiet, Quite, or Quit? Three Words People Get Confused

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2639. Quiet, quite, or quit. Three words people get confused. welcome to the all ears english podcast downloaded more than 200 million times are you feeling stuck with your english we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your american hosts lindsey mcmahon the english adventurer and michelle kaplan the new york radio girl

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Today, we get into three words that can be endlessly confusing. What is the difference between these three words and when do you use them? Let's learn this once and for all today.

Hey, Lindsay, how are you? I'm doing really well today, Michelle. How are you doing? How's it going? I'm good. Yeah. Everything's good over here. Lindsay, what is the last thing you quit?

It doesn't have to be like a job or something. Maybe you just stopped doing something. Yeah. I mean, oh, so I used to do some... So I go to a Sunday night meditation group every Sunday.

It's my community. And we meditate together. But I used to be part of a setup breakdown committee. Yeah. Where I would go and help set up, you know, you set up everything, the chairs.

And I quit that just because things have gotten really busy in my personal life. We're doing a home renovation and I'm really busy on the weekends now. So I quit that. Yeah.

But that's okay. You know, sometimes like our participation in things can wax and wane and that's okay. Right? Yeah. Yeah. What about you? What's the last thing you quit?

What is the last thing I quit? Um... Oh, man. I can't think of a specific example. You're not a quitter. You're not a quitter. No, I mean, I definitely have quit things, but I'm going to think it as we move through the episode.

Okay. It'll come up. It'll come to you. It'll come to you. Yeah. Yes. Do you think our listeners ever get confused between quit, quiet, and quite? Yeah.

Yeah, quite, quite. Yes, it is very confusing. And we're actually going to talk about it today because our listener on YouTube asked us a question about just this very topic. So, Lindsay, could you read their question for us?

Yeah. And don't forget, guys, we are over on YouTube. So search for All Ears English Podcast on YouTube. Hit subscribe. All right. This is from our amazing YouTube listener, Make It Yourself C. All right.

So here's what the student asked. Hello, All Ears English. I'm Mara and you are my favorite podcast. Wow. That's a big compliment, Michelle. Amazing. Yeah.

I wondered if you could answer my question about the difference between quiet, quite and quit, because I always get confused between them. And I would appreciate this if the podcast is in English. Okay.

All right. Well, we are going to answer that question for Mara and all of our listeners today. It is kind of confusing. You look at the word and you think, which one are we talking about here?

Yeah. right yeah yeah um so thank you so much for that question and for listening and yeah this is great i mean you're definitely not the only one who's confused between these words right yeah um it and it makes sense like lindsey said it they they all actually they all start and end with the same sound right and then with a um and sometimes even native speakers can mix up these words when spelling them so We are going to show you the differences in spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. Because even though they sound similar, they have very different meanings.

Right, Lindsay? A hundred percent. So I'm looking forward to getting into this. And it's very important to know the difference. They're very different words, right?

So we need to solve this problem today together. Guys, hit the follow button right here on Allers English. If you do that, what will happen is we will show up in your listening queue five days a week. and then it becomes part of your habit.

We teach English in a different way, in a way that focuses on human connection. So if you believe in that, if you think that's a good approach, then hit follow because you're a member of our community. All right? Definitely.

Good. All right. So let's start with quiet. So Lindsay, how do we spell quiet? Yeah, let's get into the spelling. If our listeners don't have the transcripts, they're going to need this.

So Q-U-I-E-T. Quiet. Right? Yep. Yep. So notice the I-E in the middle. And yeah, pronounced two syllables with a stress on the first one. Quiet. Yeah.

Quiet, quiet, right? Two syllables. So what does it mean, Michelle? This deals with noise. It means there's not much noise. So for example, please be quiet.

The baby is sleeping, right? Or I love Sunday mornings because the neighborhood is so quiet. Ooh, I feel that way about Sunday mornings too. It's so nice.

It's so nice. Not a lot of cars on the street, right? Yeah. Beautiful sunrise, maybe. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So now let's do quite, which is quite different.

Lindsay, how do we spell this one? Okay. This is spelled Q-U-I-T-E. So it's kind of the opposite, right? Of quiet. Yeah. Yeah. Swapping in the letters.

We're just mixing up some of the letters. So here the E is at the end. Yes. So and what about how do we pronounce this one? This is pronounced quite. So this one has one syllable and it rhymes with single syllable words like knight or right.

Right. Okay. But what does it mean? It's an adverb. It means basically, well, rather, fairly, completely are other ways to say it, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

So for example, the movie was quite good. I enjoyed it. Do you say that? I don't think this is really part of my vocabulary that much. I feel like I hear this in British English.

That's what I was going to say. Yeah. This is another, we've had a few of these pop up in the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Funny. I guess some Americans might say it, but it feels like a Britishism, right?

something yeah yeah yeah yeah i agree um or she's quite chatty isn't she that would that one would be more likely to say same same i'm not sure why yeah quite good yeah for some reason that feels like a british thing to say i don't know yeah i agree yeah but we do use quite sometimes in different ways in american english so it's important to know for sure okay definitely um

And the last one is quit. Now, how do we spell this one? Yeah. Q-U-I-T. So this one is four letters. It's the shortest of all three of them. And it's pronounced.

How's it pronounced, Michelle? Quit. One syllable. And it rhymes with words like sit or hit. It's interesting. You know how you can remember this? I just realized.

So when you quit, you quit the letter E. Yeah. ah right because there's no e in there so you can remember that i quit the letter e love it um mnemonic devices you're the queen of mnemonic devices the queen um so um but this means to stop doing something entirely right so like lindsey how you quit um the setting the setting up of the space um right exactly and So that's a good one. So think of it that way.

If you get confused, when we quit the letter E, we are quitting, meaning we're ending our participation in something, right? We're stopping doing something. So I quit my job yesterday, right?

Or she quit running when she injured her knee. Yes. Good. Okay. Great examples. All right, Michelle, let's put these words into action. Our listeners love action.

They love active use of words, right? How do we learn how to produce these words in the moment when we're under pressure, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to use them naturally and we'll see if our listeners can guess which word it is.

All right. Here we go. I just need some peace and quiet. All right. So think about what you heard. So I heard two syllables, right? Quiet. Plus, now we have to look at the context, right?

The context really gives it away. So quiet, no noise. Yeah. And not just the context, but also peace and quiet is a chunk, right? That's true. Peace and quiet.

You just need some peace and quiet. Yeah. There's no chunk of like peace and quit or peace and quite. Yeah. right right so that's i mean we could do a whole episode we could do a whole follow-up on chunks yes with these because they're very yeah maybe we'll do that soon so hit follow yeah um really good um all right let's do the next one i couldn't stand my last job i quit after two weeks

Okay, so we can hear how many syllables do we have? I feel like it was one syllable. It was one syllable. So that's the only one out of these that has one syllable.

When you do quit, you quit the E and you also quit a syllable. You quit one of the syllables. And that's where we're ending our participation in something, right? And looking at the context, you quit a job.

You don't quite a job. You don't quiet a job. Quiet a job. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So, yeah. And then one more, Lindsay. I was quite pleased with how dinner turned out.

I sound so British. Did I say that quite has more than one syllable? No. No, I'm sorry. Did I say, well, because I said quit has one syllable. So quite, quite also has one syllable.

I apologize if I said, if I mixed anyone up. Yeah. So yeah, again, one syllable. Yes. But yeah, this is, this word is describing pleased, right? So this is, you know, this is an adverb.

It's emphasizing this word. You're just a little extra pleased, quite pleased. Exactly. Exactly. So that one is quite pleased. All right. Let's bring them into a role play now, Michelle.

And our listeners should listen and try to identify, like we just did in this activity, guys, which ones we're using as you hear them. Okay? Here we go. All right.

Guess what? I quit caffeine last week. No way. You've been talking about doing that. So you're not drinking coffee at all? Just decaf. Nice work. I don't think I could ever give up caffeine, especially coffee.

Yeah. Yeah, it was tough getting to work at first. I was super quiet and groggy in the morning. I bet. But you've adjusted now, it seems like? Yeah, I actually feel quite good this week.

I think my body adapted quickly. Yeah. It's funny how sometimes we think we are really hooked on something, but we actually, if we stop doing it, sometimes we don't feel that much of a withdrawal, maybe a few days, right? Yeah.

Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. Fine. I'll use now quit. So yeah, I have tried to quit my second cup of coffee a day. But it's not going well. And I think I'm going back to it.

Are you having withdrawals? Like, Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's maybe why I've been so tired. It's harder to quit than I thought. But what I think I might do is my friend made me a matcha latte the other day.

Oh, do you like matcha? I love matcha. I'm a big matcha person. I love it. Oh, my God. She made it so good. And so I bought matcha. And after we record today, I'm going to try to make it.

Yeah. Matcha is having a big boom in the US right now. From what I heard, it's yeah, it's good. And it's really good for you as well. Do you not, do you not like, do you make yourself like a latte or what do you do?

These days I'm not having it, but I used to make like, what did I do? Just a tea and then maybe put a little bit of milk on top. Um, but I like the foaminess of it. I like the creaminess, that consistency.

You're talking about the powder, right? Or are you talking about the tea bags? The powder. Okay. The powder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You too? Yep. I love the powder.

Yeah. Yeah. But it is, it has a ton of caffeine though. Yeah. think not that no no no less than coffee less than coffee and they say that it like makes you less jittery than coffee yeah probably probably true so yeah and you get all those benefits of i mean caffeine coffee has a lot of benefits too but matcha has a lot of health benefits

from what I've seen. Yeah, there you go. So here I go. I'll let you know how it is. All right. So I said, guess what? I quit caffeine last week. So I ended my participation.

Yeah, you ended your participation in caffeine. And then you said it was tough getting to work at first. I was super quiet and groggy in the morning. So here we're using the Q-U-I-E-T, quiet, two syllables, right?

Not loud, right? Yeah. And then I said, yeah, I actually feel quite good this week. um i think my body adapted quickly so quite right very um you know pretty good yeah one syllable quite q u i t e and again i might be more likely to say something like oh i'm actually feeling much better this week or i'm feeling pretty good this week um quite might be more british sounding but very good to know

Yes. Oh my gosh. I feel like this morning I could have used a coffee for sure, but I didn't make one, but I need one today. It's okay. You can do it. Yeah.

It's also the ritual. It's the ritual. It's so nice. Start your morning with the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen. I think our listeners can definitely relate to this.

So guys, go check out 2564, human or person, what's the difference? Right. All right, guys. So takeaway for today is, yeah, we gave you we answered the question.

You know, really, we have to think about how things are spelled, how many syllables they are, and also chunks, which we might follow up with in the future, because there are a lot of good chunks with these. Um, but you know, start with one at a time, try and think of as many examples as you can with one and then move on to the next. Yeah. And I always come back to context as your North star here, right?

We don't, you know, we don't use certain words in certain contexts. It just doesn't make any sense. So yeah, I hope we come back to an episode maybe on chunks because that is context essentially. That would help a lot.

So guys, make sure you are following the shows. You get a bit more of this topic, uh, in the coming days and weeks. All right. All right. All right, Lindsay.

Well, all right. I guess we'll quit for today. Good for today. All right. It's quitting time, Michelle. It's quitting time. Yes. All right. Bye guys. Talk soon.

Bye. See you next time.