英文的 “would rather... than” 是什麼意思？

這位老師問：「Would you rather speak five languages perfectly, or 100 languages poorly?」他自己的回答用了完整的句型：「I would rather be able to speak 100 languages poorly [than speak fewer languages very well]。」would rather... than 是英文用來比較兩個選項並選出其中之一的用法。在 rather 後面，動詞要保持原形，不加 to：用 speak，而不是 to speak。

日常對話中你會不斷聽到簡短版：「I’d rather walk」（不是「I would rather to walk」）。當另一半很明顯時可以省略：「Would you rather speak five languages or 100?」你也可以反過來表達自己不喜歡的事：「I’d rather not go」的意思就是你偏好留在家裡，是一種委婉的說法。