Holmes
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2022
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
I think, too, of 'd rather. One thing that I know hasn't "been there," in my mind, when I've used 'd rather is had rather than would.No, I think it isn't there for these children.
That is, for me, the full form of a sentence like I'd rather fly is I would rather fly rather than I had rather fly.
Yet I have learned that had rather used to be the standard form, and that that (as Poutsma points out) was in itself a change from had liever/liefer!
Perhaps, just as language can evolve such that a different modal is used in a modal expression, it can also evolve such that a modal in such an expression is annihilated.
Some people may, of course, consider such an evolution a devolution, but that involves a value judgement.
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