Learn English – which one: “‘Id prefer to drink tea rather than drink coffee”/ “I’d prefer to drink tea rather than coffee” / “I’d prefer to drink tea to coffee”

ellipsis

Based on the instruction in this website, I can come up with some following sentences:

  1. I would prefer to drink tea rather than to drink coffee.

  2. I'd prefer to drink tea rather than drink coffee.

  3. I'd prefer to drink tea rather than coffee.

  4. I'd prefer to drink tea to coffee.

  5. I'd prefer tea to coffee.

  6. I'd prefer tea rather than coffee.

  7. I'd prefer tea.

I think (4) is wrong, (1), (2) & (7) are definitely right. But not sure (3), (5) & (6).

So, which one is correct?

Best Answer

All of the sentences are grammatically correct and all except sentence 4 sound natural.

Sentences 1 to 3 are made up of two clauses separated by rather than: they vary only in the amount of ellipsis- the elimination of duplicated words in the second clause. Sentence 6 is similar, but without the to drink.

Sentence 5 uses to for the comparison, which is fine when comparing two similar things (tea and coffee), but fails when you use a to-infinitive in the first clause, as in sentence 4. The two different usages of to make the sentence sound unnatural. Replacing it with a gerund eliminates the problem:

I prefer drinking tea to coffee. Cambridge Dictionary

Sentence 7 is OK and natural but has a reduced meaning: it doesn't say what you don't prefer.

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