rather than

Hi,

He watched rather ___ his homework. (A) do (B) did (C) doing

Which is the correct choice? None are correct.

Did you forget to type 'than' after 'rather'? That would let C be the right answer.

Best wishes, Clive

Sorry. I made several typos.

He watched TV rather than ___ his homework. (A) did (B) do (C) doing

I think the answer book is going to say (B), which I agree with.
Normally the form "doing" goes with another "-ing" form, as in "He was watching TV rather than doing his homework".
Nevertheless, (C) seems pretty harmless.
Clive, Do you want to jump back in here and comment?

CJ

Hi,

Well, I wuz gonna say C without any question. However, when I think about it, I wouldn't say that B is wrong, but to me it sounds very odd. I'd be surprised to hear someone say it.

I think what makes it odd is the order of the sentence. If you change it to Rather than do his homework, he watched TV it sounds fine. 'Doing' also sounds fine to me w

I think the correct answer is did because 'rather than' is usually used in 'parallel structures.'

For example,

In the end he survives rather than conquers. (Finite forms)

I believe it is important to invest in new machinery

According to Michael Swan's Practical English Usage (page 474, Third Edition, 2005):

When the main clause has a to-inifitive, rather than is usually followed by an infinitive without to or an -ing form. For example,

I decided to write rather than phone/phoning.

Teo
I think the correct answer is did because 'rather than' is usually used in 'parallel structures.'

Look at the sentence transposed:

'Rather than did his homework, he just watched.'



What would you use in the following:

Out of curiosity, how would you express the following situation (which I'm sometimes confronted with, alas...): A child has his (yes, it's "his" in my case) homework to do. All the books, copy-books and pencils are nicely spread out in front of him. But instead of actually doing his homework, he prefers to watch it/all these things.

But instead of doing his homework, he just stares blankly at [all these things / what is before him].

"watch" doesn't se

CalifJimBut instead of doing his homework, he just stares blankly at [all these things / what is before him].