Rather than examples

In English, it's often hard to tell whether phrases, such as as well as or other than, are working as prepositions or conjunctions, or just as combinations of individual words.

This slipperiness also occurs with rather than, which is found in grammatically balanced compound sentences as well as sentences with subordinate clauses. (If any of this is confusing, read on. We'll lay it all out.) Basically, the role of rather than depends on the type of sentence in which it's being used.

The word rather, itself, is commonly used in English as an adverb to indicate preference, degree, or accuracy.

I would rather not go.

It's getting rather late.

She sings rather well.

He's got a rather nice voice.

She is a doctor, or rather, a surgeon.

It took some time, but eventually grammarians and lexicographers got the message and recognized that rather than had meaning as a distinct grammatical unit.

The key to telling whether rather than is a conjunction or prepositi

is rather than a preposition

is rather than a prepositional phrase