3.1.1 Expresar preferencias y dar razones

 How to express your preferences in English. As always , the expressions belong to a more or less formal registration. The you have listed below :

1. Informal Register

How about going to the cinema tonight ? ( What do you say we go .... ? ) - How about is followed by a verb in gerund

2 . Neutral Register

I prefer watching films at home to going to the cinema . ( I prefer watching movies at home than go to the movies ) - prefer used verb followed by a gerund . Notice that the preposition for is to contrast the preferences .

3 . Formally register

I would prefer not to go out tonight . ( I'd rather not go out tonight ) - in form of conditional prefer use followed by an infinitive verb. The conditional is a strategy of non-taxation of the speaker .

I would rather stay home tonight . ( I'd rather stay home tonight) - would rather use followed by a verb in the infinitive form of short (not to) . You have more information on this structure in the lesson The " bare infinitive " or infinitive without "to".

Important !

To test preferences, in case of would and rather we can use than as preposition :

I would rather stay at home than spend the night in a disco .

If It Were up to me , I would invite them to dinner . ( If it were my decision , I would invite the dinner) - we can use the second conditional to express preferences indirectly speculating about a situation where we would have the power to decide . This indicates , as noted above, a non - imposition by the speaker.

In English there are different ways to express a preference. Here we explain what structures used for this purpose.

1) PREFER: To speak of preferences in general.

We can use the verb prefer followed by verb ending- ing or infinitive without changing the meaning.

Ex: I prefer buying online = I prefer to buy online.

- We can also indicate that we prefer one thing to another with the following structure:

 Subject + prefer + noun + TO + noun.

  Ex: I prefer tea to coffee.

- To say that we prefer to do one thing to do another can use the following structures:

a) Subject + prefer + -verb finished in ING + TO + verb finished in ING.

b) Subject + prefer + infinitive verb with to + RATHER THAN + infinitive verb without to.

  Ex: a) I prefer going to the cinema to staying at home.

        b) I prefer to read rather than watch TV.

2) WOULD RATHER: Means prefer or would prefer and is followed by infinitive verb without to (bare infinitive).

Ex: Shall we go shopping? I would rather go to the cinema.

      Short form: I'd rather go out.

- To say that we prefer to do one thing to make another use the following structure:

Subject + would rather + infinitive verb without to + THAN + infinitive verb without to

Ex: She would rather go out than stay at home.

3) WOULD PREFER: Also means prefer or would prefer and is followed by infinitive. It is more formal than would rather.

Ex: Shall we go shopping? I would prefer to go to the cinema.

Short form: I'd prefer to go out.

- To say that we prefer to do one thing to make another use the following structure:

Subject + would prefer + infinitive verb with to + RATHER THAN + infinitive verb without to

Ex: They would prefer to travel to London rather than go skiing.

ABSTRACT

1) PREFER: used for correlation with TO (if we use gerund) or RATHER THAN (if we use the infinitive with to)

Ex: I prefer swimming to running.

      I prefer to swim rather than run.

2) WOULD RATHER: used for correlation with THAN.

Ex: I would rather swim than run.

3) WOULD PREFER: used for correlation with RATHER THAN.

Ex: I would prefer to swim rather than run.

Beware!

- After than or rather than always going an infinitive verb without to (bare infinitive).

Ex: (I prefer to travel by train to drive)

     I prefer to travel by train rather than drive.

     I would rather travel by train than drive.

     I would prefer to travel by train rather than drive.

- Prefer: In the past tense is used with double r.

Ex: When I was a child, I preferred chocolate to crisps.

To learn more about the modals need to/ have to/ rather/prefer, you could see the next video.

 (Video taken from the youtube profile British Council | LearnEnglish).