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I have heard some natives say "I rather" to express they use one thing more than the other rather than using "rather" to mean "preference". for me saying "I use my phone more to watch NETFLIX"sounds weird.

Quique
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  • OP, where are you? I can't say this happens often in AmE. – FeliniusRex - gone Dec 15 '21 at 17:56
  • I am in Mexico, but I remember having heard some people say it but I guess am wrong, anyway, Can you still understand what I intended to express? – Quique Dec 15 '21 at 18:02
  • Yes, I can. I don't think you are wrong at all - I'm sure things are different in other countries. I thought you might be in the UK. They mean to say, "I (would) rather use my phone to watch Netflix (than use something else to watch Netflix)." People often omit the ( ) parts. – FeliniusRex - gone Dec 15 '21 at 18:05
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    I think you might have heard people say "I 'd rather". The 'd part is often hard to hear. – stangdon Dec 15 '21 at 18:08
  • Famous Jack Nicholson quote from the 1997 move 'As Good as it Gets' - "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes"… which, aside from being one of the best 'no thank you' responses in American cinema ,tells us it was probably in use there at least 25 years ago. – DoneWithThis. Dec 15 '21 at 18:36
  • See this NGram, showing that we normally contract the verb. Which *used* to be *had* a couple of centuries ago, but nowadays it's normally *would*. – FumbleFingers Dec 15 '21 at 19:19
  • I didn't think of a part of speech being unheard. Yes, I think that's probably what happened as well. Forget what I said above. :) – FeliniusRex - gone Dec 15 '21 at 19:26
  • And a hint: remember how we form questions in English. "How weird does it sound..." – stangdon Dec 15 '21 at 21:38

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"I would rather" or the shortened form "I'd rather" is a common way to express one's likings or preferences. As @stangdon points out in the comments, it might be a bit hard to hear. Colloquially, people usually don't put much effort into enunciating every word they say, let alone contractions.

Andrew Tobilko
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