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Originally Posted by jiang Thank you so much for your explanation. They are very clear. |
May I make a suggestion? Try:
- Thank you so much for your explanations. They are very clear.
Or:
- Thank you so much for your explanation. It is very clear.
(The noun and related pronoun need to agree in number.)
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Originally Posted by jiang I posted another post today. It's about the usage of rather than because I am not clear about one point but I am trying to explain it to see if I am correct. I'd like to compare the sentence I sent you last time and a sentence in a dictionary:
1. Rather than ______trouble, he left.
a. cause b. to cause c. causing d. caused
For this one 'a' is correct.
2. He ran rather than walked. |
I would say:
- He ran instead of walking.
Or:
- Instead of walking, he ran.
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Originally Posted by jiang My observation is:
If rather than is put in the middle of a sentence, it is a conjunction and paralleled structure should be used. If rather than is put at the beginning of a sentence then it is a preposition and bare infinitive or gerund should be used as you explained last time. So the sentence can be written in two ways:
Rather than cause trouble, he left. Or He left rather than caused trouble. Am I right? |
The word "rather" is generally used to mean "in preference to", and I probably wouldn't use it there. Instead, I might say:
- Because he didn't want to cause trouble, he left.
Or:
- Because he didn't want to be the cause of trouble, he left.
Or:
- Because he wanted to avoid causing trouble, he left.
Or:
- He left because he wanted to avoid causing trouble.
Or:
- He left because he didn't want to cause trouble.
:)