Expressing Preferences Via English Grammar
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English grammar is famous for its many structures that we sometimes memorize as a math formula. Today we are digging into the meanings of “I’d rather” and “I’d like to”.
In both cases, we use a shortened form of the verb “would”:
I’d rather go to bed early = I would rather go to bed early
I’d like to go to bed early = I would like to go to bed early
We use “I’d rather + verb” to express our preferences (to choose between options) regarding a particular situation.
Example: I’d rather go to bed earlier instead of going out.
She’d rather have a coffee. As I know she doesn’t like tea.
Apart from expressing some personal preferences towards actions, we can also use a more complex structure:
“I’d rather + subject + Ved/2”.
Example: I’d rather you talked to him directly.
My mum would rather we didn’t do any extreme sports.
Despite building these sentences with the verb in the past form, we express the idea of the action that is going to take place in the future.
To talk about preferences in the past we should use the following formula: “I’d rather + subject + Ved/3”.
I’d rather you hadn’t kept any secrets from your friends.
The main difference between “I’d rather …” and “I’d like to …” is that the first structure expresses the preferences when the choice is given. The second structure is used to talk about general preferences without having a choice. “I’d rather …” would never be followed by the infinitive with “to” whilst “I’d like to …” can’t be used with “subject + Ved/2/3” afterwords.
NO! I’d like you talked to him directly.
YES! I’d like you to talk to him directly.
NO! I’d rather you to be honest with us.
YES! I’d rather you were honest with us.
Follow the link to get familiar with the grammar structure “It’s high time …”.
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