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aashishchawla
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rather vs instead 30 Jun 2018, 03:45
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i found a lot of discussions on instead of vs rather than
but cant find any on instead vs rather

following example is from idioms of manhattan prep guide , chapter -idioms

instead
right ::They avoided the arcade and INSTEAD went to a movie.
wrong::They avoided the arcade and RATHER went to a movie.
wrong::They avoided the arcade, RATHER going to a movie.

For third one i could see that it is not parallal

please explain
thanks

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rather vs instead 30 Jun 2018, 09:46
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Hi Aashish,

Here are my two cents on Rather vs. Instead


Rather & Instead both are adverbs


Rather - is used to express a degree of something

e.g. The food is rather hot

The world seems to be rather crazy

Rather is used similar to "quite" & both are interchangeable. Rather is more formal.



Instead - is used to express in place of something or someone

Instead is used at the beginning or end of a clause.

e.g. Instead, they ran the marathon.

I ate the pizza instead.

I planned to drive to the mall; instead, I took the subway


Hope that helps.


Thanks,
GyM
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rather vs instead 30 Jun 2018, 11:04
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Hi aashishchawla,

There's a slight difference in meaning. Here is the explanation by Ron:

Quote:

"instead of" contains "of", which should be followed by a noun. so, "instead of" should be followed by a noun (or by something that acts as a noun, such as some -ing forms).

on the other hand, "rather than" can connect just about any two similarly structured things.
nouns: i decided to purchase a truck rather than a car.
adjectives: i wish this transmission were manual, rather than automatic.
etc.
also, it can connect things that aren't technically the same grammatically but that play the same grammatical role. e.g.
it's best to read the passages quickly, rather than with precise attention to every little detail.
--> here, both the adverb "quickly" and the modifier "with precise attention..." modify the action of reading the passages. so, all good.

there's also a very slight difference in meaning. i'll bet you 99.99% that gmac will never actually test this, but ...
... "X instead of Y" means that "Y" was some sort of default / assumed / preferred outcome, but that X has been substituted for it.
... "X rather than Y" indicates no such preference; it just means that there were options X and Y, and, this time, X won.

e.g.
He paid with a check rather than cash.
--> He had two options, and chose the check.

He paid with a check instead of cash.
--> He was supposed to pay in cash, but he paid with a check.

again, the likelihood that this will ever actually be tested is pretty much nil, but, there it is.
Show more

Hope this helps!
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rather vs instead 30 Jun 2018, 23:46
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Akela
Hi aashishchawla,

There's a slight difference in meaning. Here is the explanation by Ron:

Quote:

"instead of" contains "of", which should be followed by a noun. so, "instead of" should be followed by a noun (or by something that acts as a noun, such as some -ing forms).

on the other hand, "rather than" can connect just about any two similarly structured things.
nouns: i decided to purchase a truck rather than a car.
adjectives: i wish this transmission were manual, rather than automatic.
etc.
also, it can connect things that aren't technically the same grammatically but that play the same grammatical role. e.g.
it's best to read the passages quickly, rather than with precise attention to every little detail.
--> here, both the adverb "quickly" and the modifier "with precise attention..." modify the action of reading the passages. so, all good.

there's also a very slight difference in meaning. i'll bet you 99.99% that gmac will never actually test this, but ...
... "X instead of Y" means that "Y" was some sort of default / assumed / preferred outcome, but that X has been substituted for it.
... "X rather than Y" indicates no such preference; it just means that there were options X and Y, and, this time, X won.

e.g.
He paid with a check rather than cash.
--> He had two options, and chose the check.

He paid with a check instead of cash.
--> He was supposed to pay in cash, but he paid with a check.

again, the likelihood that this will ever actually be tested is pretty much nil, but, there it is.

Hope this helps!
Show more


I read this post before as well.
but my question was on "rather" vs "instead"
this explanation is for "instead of vs "rather than"".
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rather vs instead 01 Jul 2018, 12:06
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Hi aashishchawla,

I see what you mean. Instead of and rather are used for parallel structures. Instead (without of) is an adverb. It usually begins or ends a clause:
She didn't go to Greece after all. Instead , she went to America.

For the example you've provided you can put a comma to split two parts because of conjunction AND:

"They avoided the arcade and INSTEAD went to a movie" becomes "They avoided the arcade. INSTEAD, they went to a movie

Hope this helps!
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rather vs instead 22 Aug 2020, 00:28
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