I'd Rather VS I Prefer

I’d Rather VS I Prefer

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.