Quiet describes low noise or calm — "the library was quiet all morning". Quite is an adverb of degree meaning fairly or completely — "I was quite tired by then". The two are almost never confused in speech; the mix-up is a typing error caused by the swapped final letters.
Two different jobs
Quiet is mainly an adjective (a quiet street, a quiet child) and also works as a noun ("the quiet of the countryside") and a verb ("she quieted the dogs"). It is about volume, calm, or lack of activity.
Quite is an adverb that modifies another word to say how much: quite good, quite ready, quite the opposite. It never describes noise and never stands on its own as a subject.
Using each one
- "Keep the house quiet — the baby's asleep."
- "Trade has been quiet since January." (little activity)
- "The film was quite long, but I enjoyed it."
- "You're quite right — I'd read the date wrong." (completely)
The test
Say the word out loud. Quiet has two syllables, KWY-uht. Quite has one and rhymes with light. If your sentence sounds right with only one beat there, you want quite. A second check: if you can substitute fairly or completely, the word is quite; if you can substitute silent or calm, it is quiet.
Spelling-wise, remember that quiet contains the word diet's ending — and both take two syllables.
The edge case worth knowing
What quite actually signals depends on the dialect, and this genuinely causes misunderstandings. In British English, quite before a gradable adjective usually softens it: "the meal was quite good" is faint praise, meaning reasonably good and no more. In American English the same phrase leans stronger, closer to "very good". Before an absolute adjective, both dialects agree that quite means completely: "quite impossible", "quite finished", "quite alone".
There is a third word in the neighbourhood. Quit — one syllable, no e — means to stop or leave: "he quit his job". Autocorrect will not always catch a swap between these three, because all three are real words, so a spell-checker sees nothing wrong. Proofread by reading aloud rather than trusting the red underline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "be quiet" or "be quite"?
"Be quiet" — you are telling someone to stop making noise. "Be quite" is not a complete phrase on its own; quite always needs a word after it, as in "be quite still".
Does "quite good" mean very good or only fairly good?
It depends on where the writer is from. In British English it usually means fairly good, with a hint of reservation. In American English it usually means very good. If the difference matters, choose a clearer word.
How do I stop typing one for the other?
Read the sentence aloud during proofreading. The words sound nothing alike, so the error is obvious to the ear even though a spell-checker will pass both.