Let’s look at how ‘rather than‘ is used to compare. In the English Vocabulary Profile, at B1 the meaning is: ‘instead of ‘
rather than examples:
I‘d like coffee rather than tea.
I usually wear a swimsuit rather than shorts.
In the above examples: coffee, tea, a swimsuit, shorts are nouns or noun phrases, so ‘rather than‘ or ‘instead of‘ are complex prepositions. Here’s a student example with longer phrases in a speaking test:
I would go to Masterchef India because they concentrate more on their emotional background story rather than the dish itself.
TLC female India B2
In the following expert example, we can see this structure used with adverbs:
I would like to do it sooner rather than later.
This example actually has two non-finite verbs, with TO-infinitive. We can rewrite it without the ellipsis:
- I would like to do it sooner rather than
I would like to do itlater.
Also, notice the modality with ‘would’ expressing preference or an imagined situation in the above examples is common. ‘rather than’ can be split with other words:
- I would rather do it sooner than later.
Here is an expert example:
I would rather text than talk.
The next example uses the non-finite VERB-ing clause at the start of the sentence:
Rather than focusing on individuals, we should focus on the circles around them.
*Confused? Well, non-finite verbs are not the main verb in independent clauses and they don’t have a tense.
In the English Grammar Profile, in the category of clauses and comparatives, there are two similar points that stress one element in comparison.
Point 97 at B2 is defined as:
RATHER THAN + NON-FINITE CLAUSE
Point 54 at B1 is defined as
RATHER THAN + noun PHRASE or prepositional phrase
*Also notice below the ambiguity between what constitutes form and use on the EGP:
There is no difference. Both points are ‘form’.
Corpus research examples for ‘rather than‘
When we do a cluster search on iWeb
rather than * * *
with POS tags:
1 RATHER THAN LATER. 4245
2 RATHER THAN THE OTHER WAY 1476
4 RATHER THAN FOCUSING ON THE 1221
(B2 grammar and vocabulary)
A collocate search on this cluster either side reveals ‘negative’ as the most frequent.
5 RATHER THAN THE RULE. 1167 (B1 grammar and B1 vocabulary)
* Note the main collocated to the left is ‘exception’ which is B2 or above vocabulary. Making this cluster not ideal to teach to B1 students.
6 RATHER THAN RELYING ON THE 1008
How do we create more inventors,
rather than relying on a few exceptional individuals who are able to perceive real needs and respond in ways that work?
7 RATHER THAN WAITING FOR THE 757
8 RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION. 755
9 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . 621
10 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) RELYING ON A 608
11 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . 601
12 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . 568
13 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) BEING (VBG) ABLE TO 548
14 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) LOOKING (VVG) AT THE 547
15 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) HAVING (VHG) TO WAIT 527
16 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) HAVING (VHG) TO GO 523
17 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO GET 512
18 RATHER (RR@) THAN (CSN) ALL (RR31) AT (RR32) ONCE (RR33) 503
19 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO (TO) MAKE (VVI) 452
20 RATHER (II21_CS21@) THAN (II22_CS22@) , SAY , 421
21 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) FOCUS (VVI) ON THE 419 (bare infinitive)
Making these slight adjustments to sentence type
helps the reader engage with the narrative rather than focus
22 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) WAITING (VVG) FOR A 416
23 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . 415
24 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) GOING (VVG) TO THE 407
26 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) GOING (VVG) THROUGH THE 393
27 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO DO 389
28 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) WAIT (VVI) FOR THE 384
29 RATHER (RR@) THAN (CSN) VICE (RR21) VERSA (RR22) . (.) 371
30 RATHER (II21_CS21@) THAN (II22_CS22@) JUST (RR_JJ@) ONE (MC1_PN1) . (.) 343
31 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO (TO) FIND (VVI) 336
32 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) RELY (VVI) ON (II) THE (AT) 333
33 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) , (,) AND (CC) 325
34 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) GO (VVI) THROUGH (II) THE (AT) 321
35 RATHER THAN BEING FORCED TO 316
36 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) THE (AT) NUMBER (NN1) OF (IO) 313
37 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) WAITING (VVG) UNTIL (II@_CS) THE (AT) 313
38 RATHER THAN CREATING A NEW 311
39 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) ONE (MC1) OF (IO) THE (AT) 307
40 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . (.) I (PPIS1) 302
41 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) DEAL (VVI) WITH (IW) THE (AT) 295
42 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) RELYING (VVG) SOLELY (RR) ON (II) 292
43 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) DEALING (VVG) WITH (IW) THE (AT) 287
44 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) FOCUSING (VVG) ON (II) WHAT (DDQ) 287
45 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) , (,) ” (”) 284
46 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO (TO) BE (VBI) 278
47 RATHER (II21_CS21@) THAN (II22_CS22@) ANYTHING (PN1) ELSE (RR) . (.) 264
48 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) THE (AT) NORM (NN1) . (.) 258
49 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) THAT (DD1) OF (IO) THE (AT) 255
50 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) WORRYING (VVG@_JJ) ABOUT (II) THE (AT) 250
51 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) FOCUSING (VVG) ON (II_RP@) A (AT1) 248
52 RATHER THAN ALLOWING THEM TO 244 (B2 grammar B1 vocabulary)
53 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) BEING (VBG) LIMITED (VVN) TO (II) 233
54 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) HAVING (VHG) TO (TO) USE (VVI) 231
55 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) ALLOWING (VVG) IT (PPH1) TO (TO) 229
56 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) GO (VVI) TO (II) THE (AT) 226
57 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) . (.) IF (CS) 225
58 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) THE (AT) RULE (NN1) , (,) 223
59 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) TRYING (VVG) TO (TO) FORCE (VVI) 220
60 RATHER (CS21) THAN (CS22) LATER (RRR) , (,) BUT (CCB) 219
61 RATHER THAN A SERIES OF 218
(B1 grammar and vocabulary)
62 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) HAVING (VHG) TO (TO) BE (VBI) 216
63 RATHER (II21) THAN (II22) GOING (VVG) TO (II) A (AT1) 212
64 RATHER THAN THE MORE COMMON 210
(B1 grammar and vocabulary)
*However, we should note an additional comparative structure.
If we do a collocate search up to 9 spaces to the right of ‘rather than’ in the COCA corpus:
