I was told that "so much" is more emphatic than "quite so much", but I am not sure. Could you explain the difference between the following pairs of sentences?
Don't put so much emphasis on that sentence.
Don't put quite so much emphasis on that sentence.He figured if he had a rubbing of Grace's tombstone in his collection, maybe it wouldn't feel quite so much like she was gone forever.
He figured if he had a rubbing of Grace's tombstone in his collection, maybe it wouldn't feel so much like she was gone forever.
Best Answer
Quite is a versatile word. In speech, it can mean either a lot or a little, depending on how it’s pronounced. ‘I quite like it’ indicates some reserve, but ‘I quite like it’ indicates enthusiasm.
In your examples, quite has a softening effect on so much. ‘Don't put quite so much emphasis on that sentence’ invites the listener to reduce the emphasis by just a little. Similarly, the use of quite in ‘maybe it wouldn't feel quite so much like she was gone forever’ suggests that the feeling of loss might be tempered rather more than would be the case without it.