RATHER THAN + non-finite clause | phrase – English Grammar Profiler

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.

(navytimes.com)

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 it~~ later.

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.

TED

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.

(Listen to this sentence)

*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

on the structure of the text.

academicguides.waldenu.edu

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: