"I'd rather or I prefer"
I want to know when you use each of them.
Thanks!
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Corrections · 6
1
"I'd rather or I prefer"
With all due respect to Saqib in your comments, these two are related but you can't just swap them because they aren't identical at all. There's a third option "I'd prefer" that is close to being a synonym of "I'd rather" but not quite. I will illustrate this with the aid of dated pop culture references
"I'd rather" has two similar but slightly different uses, and in each case you can use "I'd prefer" but you usually need to tweak the sentence slightly:
1 - as a polite way of expressing a rule or a request to someone
* I'd rather you didn't smoke in the house [=I'd prefer you not to smoke in the house]
* I'd rather you didn't make that noise [I'd prefer it if you didn't make that noise] (In the 80's Boy George was asked by an interviewer called Russell Harty whether it was true he was gay and he replied something like "I'm not very interested in sex - I'd rather have a nice cup of tea")
2 - as a way of expressing a wish
* This concert is OK but I'd rather be at home reading a book [=This concert is OK but I'd prefer to be at home reading a book]
* Wouldn't you rather be drinking beer [=wouldn't you prefer to be drinking beer?] (In the 80's there used to be an advertisement for a beer that used this as its catch phrase but they used the name of the beer "Hemeling" as if it were a verb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nykWlsl1vQ)
Notice that these cases tend to be related to a specific situation that you would like to change: You want to smoke but I want you to refrain/ you are making a noise but I want you to stop/ This concert is ok but I want to be somewhere else / I am drinking lemondade but I want to be drinking beer
"I prefer" is used in much more general contexts so you can't really use it in any of the sentences above without changing the meaning, so if I imagine myself in all those situations I might express my feelings in other ways using "I prefer" but I am always talking about my feelings in general, not just this specific situation:
* I prefer clean air to smoky air
* I asked that guy to shut up because I prefer silence
* Concerts are OK but I prefer reading
* You can keep your lemonade, I prefer beer
0
In the US, the average person might never use "prefer" but they use "rather" very often. "Prefer" sounds more formal to our ears.
0
Hello, David,
This is what my English teacher in primary school taught me:
"Rather" is NOT a verb and is generally used for informal speech; it serves as an adverb (= preferably) with the verb implied. e.g. Would you like tea or coffee? --> I would rather have tea. (Correct grammar) <---> I'd rather (have) tea (colloquial only with verb "have" implied)
"Prefer" is a verb, as in Spanish, and used both in speech and in writing. Until you are fluent in English, you can stick with "I prefer tea."
Many younger Anglophones, particularly in the US, do not know the distinction.
0
"I prefer" tends to be a bit more definite, eg. Do you prefer tea or coffee?, "I prefer tea, thanks" (Demonstrates a definite preference, possibly to the exclusion of other options) whereas "I'd rather" tends to be less definite, eg. I'm making a drink, would you like tea or coffee? "I'd rather have tea, thanks" (Demonstrates your happy with either drink but would go for tea instead of coffee if the option is there)
The difference between them is very small and so can be used interchangeably without sounding daft!
Hope that makes sense, and is useful?
0
I prefer sounds more formal to me than I'd rather.
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