Rather than
means instead of something or in preference to.

Rather than complicating matters further, we should just let Martha deal with it herself.

Would rather / had rather
they are both the same in meaning – when you prefer to have or do one thing more than another. Although, ‘had rather’ is more archaic and not as commonly used as ‘would rather’. Generally, this is used as a contraction (I’d rather) so it isn’t always clear which one is being used..but thankfully, they have the same meaning!

“Would you like to go to Sarah’s house for dinner tonight?”
“I’d rather stay at home” (I would rather stay at home / I had rather stay at home)

Had better
is used to give advice or tell people what to do. The meaning is present or future, not past. Always use had, not have. After had better, we use the infinitive without ‘to’. Had better has the same meaning as ‘should’.

We had better leave early if we don’t want to get stuck in traffic. (we should leave early if we don’t want to get stuck in traffic – advice/suggestion)

Would better
Here the word better is the conditional of the verb ‘to better’ which means to improve or do better than someone else.

If you won the race tomorrow, you would better the current top record which was set back in the 1990s

e use I would rather to voice our preferences, whether you would like to do one thing over another or have something over something else. For example:

I would rather visit Europe than America.
I would rather do my homework when I get home.

I would rather you + the simple past is a sentence structure you can use to express your preference about what somebody does in a specific present or future event. Even though we are using the simple past tense, this sentence structure is talking about an event at present or in the future not about a situation in the past. For example:

I would rather you didn’t go to the party this weekend, you have exams next week.
I would rather you didn’t talk in class, it is very distracting.

I would rather you + the past perfect is a sentence structure that allows you to express your preference over a situation that occurred in the past.

I would rather you hadn’t called him and told him I was late.
I would rather you hadn’t gone to the party without me last night

	Created by Andrea Lladro about 7 years ago

Would rather / had rather / had better