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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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 Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:23 am Post subject: 'I prefer going to movies to shopping.' Is this right? |
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I ran into this sentence in a text book today.
'I prefer going to movies to shopping.'
I never heard or seen a sentence used this way.
Is this correctly written?
Shouldn't this be written this way?
'I prefer going to movies over shopping.' |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:34 am Post subject: |
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I've heard it that way - not sure baout it being correct or not. I think it should read
"I prefer going to the movies to going shopping." |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:39 am Post subject: |
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Could it be the British/Ausy English way of expressing preferance? I'm certain that it's not the North American way.
Any thoughts? |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:46 am Post subject: |
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To me it sounds fine. (I'm American, btw.)
I don't think Captain Corea is right about needing to add "going" before shopping. It seems superfluous. |
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aek541
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Location: Anyang Si, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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| I would say I prefer going to movies over shopping.....but I dunno......my english isn't a good example I suppose. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:28 am Post subject: |
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| I had no idea until now that people said 'prefer...over' but whatever floats your boat. |
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Novernae
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:46 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, that's right.
The structure is:
I prefer a to b.
a = apples
b = bananas
I prefer apples to bananas.
a = the action of 'going to the movies'
b = the action of 'shopping'
I prefer going to the movies to shopping.
Saying 'going shopping' is not wrong, but it's more than you need to say.
Though in conversation people would probably just say "I like going to the movies more than (I like) shopping" because prefer is a bit more formal. |
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Beej
Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Location: Eungam Loop
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Wouldnt "prefer over" be redundant since prefer already connotates the notion of more. ( liking more) |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, that's right.
The structure is:
I prefer a to b.
a = apples
b = bananas
I prefer apples to bananas.
a = the action of 'going to the movies'
b = the action of 'shopping'
I prefer going to the movies to shopping.
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But then if you say "I prefer from a to b" doesn't mean 'I like from a, but don't like b", it would mean 'I like a through b.'
Where are you from by the way? Are you British/Ausy? If it's right as you say, I like to know who would most likely to use it this way. I'm from Southwestern part of the US and never heard or seen it used this way. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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But then if you say "I prefer from a to b" doesn't mean 'I like from a, but don't like b", it would mean 'I like a through b.'
Where are you from by the way? Are you British/Ausy? If it's right as you say, I like to know who would most likely to use it this way. I'm from Southwestern part of the US and never heard or seen it used this way. |
I prefer coffee to tea. I prefer coffee over tea.
Same thing.
I'm Canadian and am familiar with both forms. You would be wrong to guess that nobody in North America understands "I prefer this to that."
| Quote: |
But then if you say "I prefer from a to b" doesn't mean 'I like from a, but don't like b", it would mean 'I like a through b.'
Where are you from by the way? Are you British/Ausy? If it's right as you say, I like to know who would most likely to use it this way. I'm from Southwestern part of the US and never heard or seen it used this way. |
Adding "from" just confuses the issue and doesn't make sense. It's not a question of preferring a range of things, it's preferring one thing over another. Prefer requires you to make a comparison between two things. You could perhaps say, "I prefer the range of things from A to B to/over the range of things from C to D." But when would you ever say that?
| Quote: |
| Wouldnt "prefer over" be redundant since prefer already connotates the notion of more. ( liking more) |
Hey, Beej! How's it going, man? |
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aek541
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Location: Anyang Si, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Preference....which is what we are talking about... is most often used when choosing one thing over another....I use I prefer.....I'm from Northern Saskatchewan Canada. I like to think I use proper grammer, well, for the most part. I don't know if my way of speaking is correct. Most people do not speak the way that I do in my home town so........ |
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Novernae
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| ChuckECheese wrote: |
| Quote: |
Yeah, that's right.
The structure is:
I prefer a to b.
a = apples
b = bananas
I prefer apples to bananas.
a = the action of 'going to the movies'
b = the action of 'shopping'
I prefer going to the movies to shopping.
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But then if you say "I prefer from a to b" doesn't mean 'I like from a, but don't like b", it would mean 'I like a through b.'
Where are you from by the way? Are you British/Ausy? If it's right as you say, I like to know who would most likely to use it this way. I'm from Southwestern part of the US and never heard or seen it used this way. |
I'm from Canada.
I don't understand what you mean by the from thing. You mean you would say "I prefer from bananas to apples", meaning "I like apples through bananas"? Neither of those structures make any sense to me. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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| ChuckECheese wrote: |
| But then if you say "I prefer from a to b" doesn't mean 'I like from a, but don't like b", it would mean 'I like a through b.' |
I have to agree with Novernae. This is completely off the charts of comprehensibility. |
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Atassi
Joined: 14 Feb 2006
Location: 평택
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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I'm from Florida, where there are quite a mix of Englishes/dialects. All of the things said so far are correct (except the "from" thing). "To" has nothing to do with "from".
| Quote: |
| 'I prefer going to movies to shopping.' |
I would say this is correct. The reason why it sounds funny is that we usually don't use "prefer" that way. I would usually hear prefer as an answer: "I prefer seeing a movie" or "I prefer going to movies." This is like saying "I'd rather go to the movies."
None of the examples (with "to", "over", ect.) struck me as being funny in any way. It's standard English whereever you are. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, I hate shopping. although I guess it depends what Im shopping for. |
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