Tema 5.2: Grammar 1. Expressing preference with would rather and would prefer.
VG.5.2.1. Video de la clase.
In this lesson, we are going to learn how to say “prefer” in English, which can have several different forms.
Before starting the lesson, we are going to remember things we already know to try to better learn the uses of “prefer”, “would prefer” and “would rather”.
Prefer
Prefer is the verb to prefer in English.
“Prefer” is a verb like “like”, “love” and “hate”. It is normally followed by a verbing, but it can also be followed by the infinitive form.
Examples:
Q: Would you like chocolate or vanilla?
¿Quieres chocolate o vainilla?
A: I prefer chocolate, thanks.
Prefiero chocolate, gracias.
Q: Do you prefer to watch movies at home or to go to the cinema?
¿Prefieres ver películas en casa o ir al cine?
A: I prefer to watch movies at home.
Prefiero ver películas en casa.
Q: Do you want to go to the park or the cinema?
¿Quieres ir al parque o al cine?
A: I prefer going to the park.
Prefiero ir a l parque.
Q: Do you want tea or coffee?
¿Quieres te o café?
Q: I prefer tea.
Yo prefiero te.
Prefer + rather
For this we have the following structure:
Examples:
I prefer to drink Coke rather than drink Pepsi.
Prefiero beber coca cola a beber Pepsi.
He prefers to read rather than watch TV.
Prefiere leer a ver televisión.
They prefer to stay in rather than go out .
Prefieren quedarse en casa a salir por ahí.
Another structure to study is the following:
I prefer drinking coke to drinking Pepsi.
Prefiero beber coca cola a beber Pepsi
He prefers reading to watching TV.
Prefiere leer a ver televisión.
They prefer staying in to going out.
Prefieren quedarse en casa a salir por ahí.
We can also express it without putting the second verb, that is, I would rather do this than that. In that case it is much more normal to put a gerund after prefer.
I prefer drinking coke to Pepsi.
Prefiero beber coca cola a Pepsi.
He prefers cycling to cars.
Prefiere montar en bici a los coches.
If you look closely, you will see that using prefer + verbing is correct in all cases. If you do it like this, you don't have to remember anything else, just put the gerund verb after prefer, just like you do with like, love and hate.
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