Why is there not a MAIN VERB in this sentence? We knowthat sentences like the following are common in use. Their construction is: SOMEBODY WOULD RATHER + THAT CLAUSE. I wonder why there is not a main/

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yhemusa

Why is there not a MAIN VERB in this sentence? We knowthat sentences like the following are common in use. Their construction is: SOMEBODY WOULD RATHER + THAT CLAUSE. I wonder why there is not a main/finite verb in the main cluase: somebody would rather [ Verb? ] that...... Is it that there had been a verb-- such as like, hope-- there in the construction, and then it disappeard sometime during the grammatical evolution? Or it's absolutely another historical scenario? If you have the historical knowledge, please tell me, thank you so so much! ------ Financing the United States had the key characteristics of a public good: [[[ everyone would rather that someone else finance the United States' large deficit]]]. -------

Answers · 12

It depends on the sentence. For example: I would rather be alone than hang out with those freaks. Here 'would" is an auxiliary verb and "be" is the main one. Another example I would rather (that) you call me tomorrow. 'Would' is the main verb and it means wish for, want.

Hi! You can't have a main clause without verb, subject and object. I would rather that he stop that. "I would rather" is not a complete clause and neither is "that he stop that". "I would rather that he stop that" is a complete clause in the subjunctive tense. Would is not a verb, but an auxiliary verb, and it creates the conditional tense. In this case rather functions like the verb to prefer. I would prefer it if he stoped that. "I would prefer it" is a complete main clause and "if he stoped that" is dependent. I hope that helps!

I believe in this case, the "rather that" part actually serves as a verb but in a slang kind of way. You could substitute the "rather that" with "prefer that" instead. I believe that part might the hidden verb you may be looking for.

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