WOULD RATHER

Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone, depending on when you are reading this. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin.

Today we are going to answer a request from one of our Daily Vitamin readers; his question was, "Could you please tell us the meaning and use of the word rather"

There are two main uses of rather. In today's Vitamin we will examine the first meaning and tomorrow we will look at a second meaning.

Use 1: to indicate what you would prefer to do in a particular situation.

Form:
⇒ would* rather infinitive verb (without to) = would prefer to do
⇒ would* rather not infinitive verb (without to) = would prefer not to do

*The contraction of would ('d) is also common --> would rather = 'd rather

Example 1:
Corrie: Do you want to go and see the new Spielberg adventure?
Brenda:I would rather (I'd rather) see something more romantic. (= I would prefer to see a more romantic film.)

Example 2:
Mr. Hays: I'd rather not go to tomorrow's lunch meeting. I'm quite busy. (= I would prefer not to go to the meeting.)
Ms. Johnson: That's alright. It's not very important.

Example 3:
Greg: Would you rather have toast or cereal for breakfast?
Jenny: Both! I'm really hungry this morning.

Tomorrow will be our last lesson of the week, and we will look at the other common use of rather. In the meantime, to get some more writing practice, I encourage you to write a sentence with today's structure: would rather (not) infinitive verb. You can post your sentence on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing as soon as we can.

Enjoy the rest of your day.