RATHER

Question

He didn't do his homeworks. He did them in a hurry to be more precise.

He didn't do his homeworks. He did them in a hurry rather.

Are both sentences correct?

And more importantly do they mean the same thing?

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

"homework" is uncountable. It does not have a plural. I would also insert commas:

"He didn't do his homework. He did it in a hurry, to be more precise."

"He didn't do his homework. He did it in a hurry, rather."

In writing, I think I prefer "rather" and "to be more precise" at the start of the sentence, but in speech they might come at the end.

In speech, you'd use this style if you were correcting yourself, and in writing if you were mentally correcting yourself -- as if describing a train of thought. The versions above are possible, but to me the single-sentence "He didn't do his homework" feels slightly too definitive to be later contradicted unless a deliberate stylistic effect is being sought. So I think I would usually write something like:

"He didn't do his homework -- or, rather, he did it in a hurry."

Wholegrain · Answer

Ok, thank you.

That was quite usefull and instructive.

RATHER

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