Can I use 'would better' instead of 'would rather'?

Question

Hi, everyone! I am a Korean teacher of English in Korea. One of my fellow teachers said that it could be possible to use 'would better' instead of 'would rather'. But I argued that 'would better' was not standard English expression, therefore, Learners or teachers of English as a foreign or second language use 'would rather' rather than 'would better'. Besides, I could not find 'would better' in the OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, COBUILD ADVANCED LEARNER'S DICTIONARIES, and LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH, I only find three examples sentences in The Collins WordbanksOnline English corpus. What do you think? Thanks in advance. PS We are checking our students' papers!

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]One of my fellow teachers said that it could be possible to use 'would better' instead of 'would rather'.[/nq]
Context?

"I would rather go to the seaside today" "I would rather die than eat another bull's teste"

Is that the meaning you intend?

/Would better/ just does not work, but you could say something like:

"It would *be* better to play chess, rather than tennis, since you have a broken arm"

But I cannont think of a use of would and better without a "be" in the middle.

kt. -- .sig is in the post

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, everyone! I am a Korean teacher of English in Korea. One of my fellow teachers said that it could ... in The Collins WordbanksOnline English corpus. What do you think? Thanks in advance. PS We are checking our students' papers![/nq]
There is no phrase "would better". There is however the phrase "had better".

For example "I had better go to town" or, "I'd better go to town." Your friend might have been thinking of this construct, and mistaking the "I'd" for "I would" when in fact is is the short version of "I had".

"I had better " has an entirely different meaning to "I would rather".

"I would rather go to town than stay at home and watch TV."

"I had better go to town because I promised to meet my brother at five o'clock."

"I had better" is casual and suggests less urgency than, for example, "I must".

I'd better stop writing this and do some work.

HTH

nl

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I am a Korean teacher of English in Korea. One of my fellow teachers said that it could be possible to use 'would better' instead of 'would rather'. But I argued that 'would better' wasnot standard English expression,[/nq]
"Would better" is non-idiomatic and "would rather" is idiomatic English. You are right and your colleague is wrong.

Would is an (auxiliary) verb and Better and Rather are adverbs. Although the sequence WR occurs frequently, it conveys much less information than the main verb of whatever clause it occurs in.

-- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) dphillipson(at)trytel.com

Usenet · Answer

X gave as an example:
[nq:1]"I would rather die than eat another bull's teste"[/nq]
Half of the usual set is a . Or did you mean ?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]X gave as an example:[/nq]
[nq:2]"I would rather die than eat another bull's teste"[/nq]
[nq:1]Half of the usual set is a . Or did you mean ?[/nq]
No, I was wrong. Testis was what I was after. Silly example, anyway...

kt.

-- .sig is in the post

Usenet · Answer

In article , (Email Removed) says...
[nq:1]Hi, everyone! I am a Korean teacher of English in Korea. One of my fellow teachers said that it could ... would better" is very unusual, though possible in spoken English in the sense "it is advisable for you to..." .[/nq]
But I believe your colleague is interpreting "you'd better" as "you would better" rather than "you had better" = "I strongly advise you to ...". The latter is the normal interpretation.

Gary

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Hi, everyone! I am a Korean teacher of English in ... think? Thanks in advance. PS We are checkingour students' papers![/nq]
[nq:1]There is no phrase "would better". There is however the phrase "had better".[/nq]
At least idiomatically, "would better" might occur in some contexts, with a meaning at least similar to "would rather". "You would better show the context of the sentence than form a rule without context." "You would better (or would best) be out of town before Big Bill gets here."

Of course the phrase can also occur in other contexts, such as "Joe would better represent our company than Ted, because Ted looks like he puts on his clothes with a pitchfork."

(...)

-- rzed

Usenet · Answer

Le Tue, 8 Jul 2003 12:41:20 +0100, X Kyle M Thompson a écrit :
[nq:2]X gave as an example: Half of the usual set is a . Or did you mean ?[/nq]
[nq:1]No, I was wrong. Testis was what I was after. Silly example, anyway...[/nq]
Not at all. I've never put it to the teste, but I'm told that they are delicious.

Naturally, you should be cautious about ordering them on the days when the bull won the contest in the corrida.

-- Peter Moylan http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]'would only English our[/nq]
[nq:2]There is no phrase "would better". There is however the phrase "had better".[/nq]
[nq:1]At least idiomatically, "would better" might occur in some contexts, with a meaning at least similar to "would rather". "You would better show the context of the sentence than form a rule without context."[/nq]
Idiomatic perhaps, but wrong. That sentence should read, "You would do better to show the context of the sentence..."
[nq:1]"You would better (or would best) be out of town before Big Bill gets here."[/nq]
And that sentence should read "You had better (had best) be out of town before Big Bill gets here." Here the word 'better' qualifies the word 'had' because 'had' is a form of 'have to' - the subjunctive form, I believe.
[nq:1]Of course the phrase can also occur in other contexts, such as "Joe would better represent our company than Ted, because Ted looks like he puts on his clothes with a pitchfork."[/nq]
Yes, that is right, but here the word 'better' qualifies the verb 'represent'. You can rearrange the sentence to read, " Joe would represent our company better than Ted". This sense is entirely different from the one the first poster asked about, where the phrase 'had better' cannot be split.

You can't say, "You had be out of town better before Big Bill arrives."

nl

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2] 'would only English our At least idiomatically, "would better" ... context of the sentence than form a rule without context."[/nq]
[nq:1]Idiomatic perhaps, but wrong. That sentence should read, "You would do better to show the context of the sentence..."[/nq]
What do you mean by "idiomatic" here? When the context is English grammar or usage I would take "That statement is idiomatic" to mean that a native speaker of English would consider the statement to be correctly formed--that is, the possibility of its being wrong is logically excluded.

I'm not speaking about the "would better" controversy but about the meaning of "idiomatic."

-- Raymond S. Wise Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Can I use 'would better' instead of 'would rather'?

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