would rather ... than ...

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Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

would rather ... than ...

文章 Kooper »

Here is a sentence quoted from Reader's Digest - Truth is, Cheryl says, she would rather he be fighting in foreign wars than going underground every day.

I looked up a grammar book, English Grammar in Use, and it said when we want somebody to do something , we can say "I'd rather you did something." In this structure we use the past, but the meaning is present or future.

Ex: "Shall I stay here?" "I'd rather you came with us."
Ex: Shall I tell them or would you rather they didn't know?

Compare:
1. I'd rather cook the dinner now.
2. I'd rather you cooked the dinner now.

Does it mean that the sentence in Reader's Digest is not correct? Or there is a different rule for "would rather someone.... than..."?
The second question is I wonder if it is correct to omit the second "be" before "going underground every day" since the two sentences around "than" are supposed to have the same structure.
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Wayne
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文章: 1500
註冊時間: 週四 5月 13, 2004 10:53 am
來自: Taipei, Taiwan, Pandemonium

Re: would rather ... than ...

文章 Wayne »

It is possible to use prsent tense but rare.

You can omit verb to be in the second sentence; note you have also omitted the subject in the clause.
Knowledge is power -- when shared.
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