Id Rather VS I Prefer English Vocabulary Lesson
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
I’d rather, I prefer, which one is more natural?
Let’s talk about it.
Today, I want to talk to you about the natural
expression, I would rather or I’d rather.
Maybe you remember from elementary school
English classes, learning the phrase, “Which
do you prefer, chocolate or vanilla?
I prefer chocolate.”
This expression, the sentence, this question,
it’s okay, but it’s not really something that
we use very commonly in daily conversation.
I don’t want to tell you that native speakers
never use the word prefer, we do use the word
prefer, but today, I want to give you another
expression that you can use to build your
vocabulary and have some more variety to sound
like a native speaker.
Here’s what I recommend instead.
“Do you want to eat at the Japanese or Italian
place tonight?
I’d rather eat sushi, so let’s go to the Japanese
place.”
This construction is I’d rather, plus a verb.
“I’d rather eat sushi.
Let’s go to the Japanese place.”
Or you can ask, “Vanessa, why don’t you live
in New York City?
Why did you choose North Carolina when you
could live in New York City?”
I might say, “I’d rather not live somewhere
that cold.”
This construction with the negative, we need
to add not before the verb.
“I’d rather not live somewhere that cold.”
I’d rather not.
Last year, when we moved back to the US after
living in Korea for three years, my husband
and I didn’t know which city we wanted to
live in.
I said that I’d rather not live in the city
where I grew up and my husband, Dan, said
the same thing about the city he grew up in,
so we had to make a list and decide what were
our priorities.
What did want in a city that we would live
in for the next few years?
We sat down and made a list and I said that
I’d rather walk or bike than drive, because
I feel healthier, I enjoy walking, I enjoy
biking, and driving just isn’t my thing.
It was important to have a city that had a
nice downtown area that we could hopefully
live close to.
For Dan, he said that he’d rather have a place
with down to earth people.
Not, maybe, high class type of people.
He wanted somewhere where we could fit in,
and meet friends who were similar to us.
In the end, we found two different cities.
One city was five hours from my husband’s
family, six hours from my family, and a little
bit further north.
But, the second city was only one hour from
my family and eight hours, maybe seven hours
from my husband’s family.
In the end, we decided that we’d rather live
close to one family than far from both families.
In the end, we decided to live in Asheville,
North Carolina, which is where I live now.
It was a great choice.
The weather is nice.
The people are down to earth.
We can walk to the downtown area.
I can walk to the grocery store.
In the end, we got what we wanted.
It’s a great place to visit because we were
really intentional and we tried to choose
this place carefully.
On my website, I’m going to write some more
sample sentences and details about the expression,
I’d rather.
If you’re not on my website already, click
the link below this video to check out the
full free lesson.
Now, I have a question for you.
Can you make a sample sentence using today’s
expression, I’d rather?
I’d love to see your comment in the questions
below and I’ll talk to you the next time.
Goodbye.