PARIS to LONDON special | English class on the Eurostar: RATHER, RATHER THAN, WOULD RATHER

today we're going to look at the word rather in English now it's a really useful word but it has many different meanings and it can be a bit tricky so do pay attention but by the end of this video you'll know it perfectly so we're going to look at would rather that we use to talk about preferences rather as an adverb of degree a bit like quite or pretty or fairly if you know those words and here it can be used before adjectives verbs and nouns and also rather than too mean instead of or in place of I'm going to have a look at that first so let me give you some examples of that can we meet on Sunday rather than Saturday can we meet on Sunday rather than Saturday this work is now done by computers rather than humans rather than criticizing me why don't you help me and today I'm in a bit of a hurry because I'm going to London right now and so I thought rather than giving the standard lesson from my comfortable chair I thought it'd be interesting to do the rest of this lesson during my journey to London I'm not sure quite how it's gonna turn out but it should be fun anyway let's try so I'm taking the Eurostar right now let's go [Music] so I left I hope now and now I'm heading over to the Metro so would rather for preference the construction is would rather class infinitive without - I would rather you would rather he would rather et cetera so here I am at the metro station and with would rather of course you can contract woods so I would I'd you would you'd he would he'd rather okay so that would be the most common way to do that so let's have a look at one example now I'm taking the metro today I'd rather walk than take the metro I'd rather walk than take the metro but I don't have much time so I'm taking the metro and you might also ask what's the difference between would rather and prefer I'll explain that in a moment [Music] for questions use would you rather would you rather live in the city or the countryside I'd rather live in the city would you rather have a banana or an apple I'd rather have an apple now I'm in garden or and there I I'd rather like a cup of coffee now be careful because that's a different use of the word rather it's not talking about preference well we'll come to that in a minute so I'm heading off for a coffee [Music] so I'm in garden or just about to catch my train time for a quick cup of coffee now you want to know if you can use prefer rather than would rather okay and the the quick answer to that is yes you can you can use prefer with an infinitive okay I would prefer to take the train than the the plane okay and if you speak a latin-based language then you already have prefer in your vocabulary so it's quite natural to use prefer however there are two points to bear in mind firstly before a verb native English speakers would probably use would rather I'm not saying proposing correct but they probably use would rather so do learn it so you need to understand it too so I would rather watch football than cricket I would rather live in London than Paris that's not necessarily true because I love both cities it's just an example okay and the other thing to bear in mind is when you have to use prefer and that is before a noun before and now you cannot use wood rather because you need a verb I would rather I prefer coffee to tea I prefer coffee to tea okay you cannot say that we would rather because you need to have a verb so you would have to say I would rather have coffee okay I will rather watch a game of football I prefer football to cricket okay so we prefer you can use it just with a noun now we're going to look at would rather in the negative but I've got to go and catch my train [Music] got to enter the Eurostar now okay okay so for the negative use would rather not just put not before I would rather not jump in that Lake full of crocodiles I would rather not go into that horrible restaurant I would rather not go to work today [Music] so up until now we've been using would rather plus a verb in the infinitive without to and that's okay most of the time when it's clear by the context who you are speaking to however sometimes we need to put a pronoun after rather and before the verb okay if we need to be very clear about who we're talking to and that's when you would use the Unreal parser user past tense there you use the past tense I'll show you what I mean okay so for example shall we stay at the party no I'd rather we went and rather we went home now okay shall we French no I'd rather we spoke in English I'd rather we didn't okay and by the we didn't so this is not as it's not past this is called an unreal let me give you one more example okay so shall we have a meeting today no I'd rather we had the meeting next week strange isn't it because you use the past tense to talk about the future okay but as I said this called an unreal past in English I'll give you just one works out should he come today no I'd rather came tomorrow I'd rather he played tomorrow [Music] [Music] so here we are in London I made it and I've just got time to tell you about the other use of rather and that is to talk about something to a certain degree to a certain amount okay remember this is a completely different use of rather so I'll give you an example the I rather enjoyed the journey today I rather enjoyed journey today that's before a verb the exam was rather difficult exam was rather or an adjective and also some the film is rather good the film is rather good so you could use a cinnamon quite good or pretty good and also has even it's a noun this guy's rather bloody stupid and one more thing before I finish you can use rather to correct a mistake you've made in the middle of a sentence let me give you an example of that so today is Tuesday Oh rather Wednesday okay so you can use a rather just like I mean you could also use I means as today's Tuesday all right the Wednesday you can do that when you made a mistake or even intentionally just to add some be playful with the language so for example he sang or other shouted through the song okay so there you are I'm in London now I'm off to I don't know do something see you later [Music]

Channel: LetThemTalkTV

Views: 23,315

Keywords: Rather, would rather, rather than, prefer, English grammar, learn English, adverb of degree, instead of, English teacher, British pronunciation, yt:cc=on, Paris to London, Eurostar, vlog, Gideon, Letthemtalktv

Id: tb081cSCkfg

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 05 2018