rather versus fairly

[Gość: wuj99]

Hello Steve,

I have this little question for you: Im right now preparing to exam and the
online course that Im using claims that saying:

"The wheather is fairly good, but I wish it was a little warmer"

is better then saying:

"The wheather is rather good, but I wish it was a little warmer"

(or the opposite, I closed it and cant find it) Why is that ? I would think
that both mean close enough to "the wheather is fine".

Thanks.

[Gość: wuj99]

Hers another thing concerning present participle clauses:

"Having washed the car, I made myself a cup of tea. "

better then:

"After I had washed the car, I made myself a cup of tea. "

What is the difference between these two assuming that the first one is correct
which Im not sure of ?

Thanks.

[Gość: wuj]

The second better then the first one of course.

[Gość: Steve]

My wife often asks me questions like this and I find them difficult to answer because they use an emphasis designed for teaching grammar from books rather than as a reflection of normal speech. In most cases the car washing would be at the end: "I made myself a cup of tea after I washed the car". Even when setting out a list of things done I would say "after I washed the car...". However, either of your two would mean the same if someone said them to me. Outside grammar teaching I don't think you should care: your English expertise will be better than mine.

The only other thing I can think of is that 'having washed' shows some causal or pre-set timing relationship eg "I was very thirsty, but I was determined to wash the car. Having washed the car, I made myself some tea".

The "had washed" version can emphasise washing so strongly that it seems to relate to a previous 'hadn't'. "I wanted a break, so I lied to the boss (my wife) about washing the car. She didn't believe me. After I had washed the car, I made myself a cuppa."

[Gość: Steve]

You would normally say the first, where "fairly good" means that the weather is alright, but you would prefer it to be better (warmer). "Rather good" means that it is better then you expect and you are therefore pleased. Adding "but I wish" seems to contradict this by suggesting that in fact you are not happy with the temperature. It is not wrong, but it might be better to say "although it could be a bit warmer", meaning that it would then be very good weather and you would be very pleased with it.

Does that make sense?