instead of vs rather than

[possible894]

Hi,

I know this might have been asked many times on this forum, but honestly i still struggle with this. Can somebody help??

Abhi

[esledge]

You are not alone! I just learned one useful distinction between the two this week!

The "of" in "instead of" is a preposition, and the object of a preposition must be a noun.

So you CAN say:
I want chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla today.
Miguel decided to play guitar instead of drums.
Abhi wants to know when to use the words "rather than" instead of the words "instead of."

But you SHOULDN'T say:
I walked to work instead of drove.
Miguel played guitar instead of drummed.
Abhi embraced the difficulties of grammar instead of gave up.

(See? These are all parallel--two verbs in the same tense. But, it probably even sounds weird to many people that I put a verb after "instead of." My ear is telling me to switch the last words above to driving, drumming or drums, and giving up, but that would ruin the parallelism, so there's obviously some possible difficulty with using "instead of.")

In contrast, "rather than" can compare nouns or verbs, so it's just more likely to be correct.

It's probably most noteworthy that the OG doesn't even mention the rather than/instead of choice in the explanation for questions that have it, except to say that both require parallelism.

[mohitkant]

Hi Emily,

Given the rules above,can you throw some light on the following question from the Official Guide, the OA is A, here we are using "Instead of" with come in for soft landing. How does this question justify the usage of instead of?

[deleted because problem is from a banned source - see below]

[aditya.ghamande]

http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... cause.html

[mohitkant]

So .. come in for a 'soft landing is a noun phrase then according to the rule.

can you please elaborate on noun phrases. I don't think the concept is clear to me.

[jlapicque]

Hi,

Just a question. If Instead of must compare two nouns. Why is the answer not E in this question from MGmat Bank SC ?

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly the choice of young people as a first investment.


A) buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly the choice of young people

B) buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for those new to financial planning, increasingly young people have shown a choice for real estate

C) buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, the choice of young people increasingly has become real estate

D) buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional investments for those new to financial planning, young people have increasingly chosen real estate

E)stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing choice of real estate

The answer is D

[esledge]

jlapicque, "buying" is acceptable after "of" because it is a noun in that sentence. (gerund = use of a verb as a noun, in its -ing form)

[esledge]

Hi Emily,

Given the rules above,can you throw some light on the following question from the Official Guide, the OA is A, here we are using "Instead of" with come in for soft landing. How does this question justify the usage of instead of?

[deleted because problem is from a banned source - see below]

(A) uses "instead" by itself, without an "of." The "of" is the only reason you would need to follow with a noun. By itself, "instead" works as an adverb.

With some modifiers omitted, (A) reads:
...the economy will avoid the recession ... and instead come in for a 'soft landing'...

Parallelism is signalled by "and instead," and is between two verbs: "will avoid" and "(will) come."

To see that "instead" functions as an adverb, check out this similar sentence:
...the economy will avoid the recession ... and alternatively/finally/ultimately come in for a 'soft landing'...

So .. come in for a 'soft landing is a noun phrase then according to the rule.

can you please elaborate on noun phrases. I don't think the concept is clear to me.

"Come in for a soft landing" is not a noun phrase here. "Come" is a verb.

[gs.abhinav]

Hi,

I came across the following question in a Manhattan CAT which tests the usage of "Instead of" and "Rather than".

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

c) Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

d) Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

The answer explanation states that C is wrong because it uses the verb "Accepting" with the phrase "Instead of". Clearly "accepting" is not a verb here and Emily has confirmed this in one of her posts above by stating that the gerund is an acceptable object of the preposition "of" in the phrase "Instead of".

Why is C wrong then?

[tim]

Parallelism. "accepting" is meant to be parallel to "sailed", so it is doubly wrong. First, you wouldn't make those two words parallel and the first word should instead be "accept"; second, once you make that necessary change you are now using a verb as the object of a preposition..

In Emily's example, "buying" is parallel to "real estate" (both nouns); make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking "buying" is parallel to the verb "chosen"..

Also please note that i have deleted the OG problem text above. OG is a banned source; it is illegal to post OG questions anywhere on the web. If you are in one of our classes, please ask OG questions during office hours or before/after class..

[ivy]

In Emily's example, "buying" is parallel to "real estate" (both nouns); make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking "buying" is parallel to the verb "chosen"..

Hi Tim,

Though 'buying stocks and bonds' and 'real estate' are structurally parallel as both are nouns, they does not seem logically parallel. 'stocks and bonds' and 'real estate' are both logically and structurally parallel. Then, how can the following sentence be grammatically right?

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional investments for those new to financial planning, young people have increasingly chosen real estate as a first investment.

Thank you! :)

[tim]

To be honest I don't really like this sentence because I think there are better ways to express what is happening. But the idea is that there are two things that are possible investments. Buying stocks and bonds is one possible investment. Real estate is another possible investment. Again, I think it could be expressed better, but that's the best we can do with this one..

[kristen.li]

Hi, does "instead of" and "rather than" require structural parallelism -- meaning that if both sides of the "instead of"/"rather than" have to have a similar grammatically structure?

Is it correct to say " I like to write rather than phoning" for GMAT purpose?

[tim]

your example is incorrect, because as you note structural parallelism is required anytime you use "instead of" or "rather than"..

[divineacclivity]

1. It is already pointed out that "instead of" compares two nouns because "of" is a preposition and its object should be a noun.
e.g I decided to order ice-cream instead of coffee.
"rather than" can compare nouns or verbs e.g. I decided to write rather than call/calling.

2. There's another thing that subtly differentiates the two: "instead of" and "rather than". Experts please correct me if I'm wrong here:

"rather than" shows preference of one thing or the other whereas "instead of" suggests replacement of a noun or an action noun with something else

e.g.
I prefer starting early rather than leaving things to the last minute.
I'll have tea instead of coffee, please.