"I would rather..."

[laepelba]

How would I say "I would rather...."

For example, my student just came to me for math help after school, and he said "Hola. ¿Como está?" I wanted to say "I would rather be outside!" (Because it's a gorgeous day out!)

Would I say something like "Preferiría estar afuera"???

[Rusty]

That certainly works! There are other ways to say it, too.

¡Que estuviera afuera!
¡Sería mejor si estuviera afuera!

[laepelba]

Thanks, Rusty!

So how would I make it more generic? "I would rather be doing......"

I would rather be playing football.
Que jugaría fútbol.
o...
Jugaría estar fútbol.
o...
Sería mejor si jugaría fútbol.
??

Is any of that correct?

[Rusty]

Sorry, but you must use the imperfect subjunctive instead. Your first sentence used the conditional 'I would prefer' (preferiría), followed by an infinitive. This works well for everything you'd rather be doing:
I would rather play ... than ... (preferiría jugar a ... a ...)
I'd rather stay home than go to the movies.
Preferiría quedarme en casa a ir al cine.

It's also perfectly fine to use the present tense in those sentences (slightly different meaning, though):
Prefiero quedarme en casa a ir al cine.

My second example shows the use of the conditional with a conjunction (que) and a secondary clause that must take the imperfect subjunctive. This gets away from using preferir, not that there is anything wrong with that.
Sería mejor que jugara al futbol. (It would be better if you were playing soccer.)

My first example has no secondary clause, but is cast in the subjunctive because it expresses something contrary to fact (or a wish). This is like saying 'would that I were outside'. Another way to translate it is 'I wish I were outside.'

[poli]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks, Rusty!

So how would I make it more generic? "I would rather be doing......"

I would rather be playing football.
Que jugaría fútbol.
o...
Jugaría estar fútbol.Que estuviera jugando fútbol (sounds a little awkward)
Sería mejor si jugaría fútbol.Sería mejor si jugara fútbol (easy rule: the conditional is followed by the past subjunctive)
A lot of times, though not gramatically correct, you may hear: Mejor estar
afuera jugando fútbol que aquí en el aula ¿Verdad?

Is any of that correct?

----------------

[Tomisimo]

I'll just chime in and say that in my opinion, preferiría is the most common, generic way of saying I would rather.

I'd rather be reading = Preferiría estar leyendo
I would rather play soccer = Preferiría jugar futbol.
I'd rather go inside = Preferiría ir adentro (or if you were talking about yourself and the person with you-- Preferiría que fuéramos adentro)

[laepelba]

Thanks, all. That is VERY helpful. In fact, at this point, I ought to concentrate on just ONE way to say something. So, David's suggestion that preferia is the most common will be what I focus on. It seems to be a very useful concept to be able to express!

[chileno]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks, all. That is VERY helpful. In fact, at this point, I ought to concentrate on just ONE way to say something. So, David's suggestion that preferia is the most common will be what I focus on. It seems to be a very useful concept to be able to express!

Preferiria, right?

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by chileno

Preferiria, right?

ERMMMM.... Yup. You caught me.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree that "preferiría" is the best one.

You can also say "me gustaría más"

"Preferiría estar en el jardín"/"Me gustaría más estar en el jardín" = "I'd rather be in the garden"

[Fazor]

Porque 'preferiria' puede estar 'yo' o 'el, ella, usted', ¿Se necesita usar el pronombre si no tienes contexto?

[poli]

Gustaría is clearly better. Preferería is very difficult to pronounce

[laepelba]

Yes - I think that gustaría is much easier to pronounce!!

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by poli

Gustaría is clearly better. Preferería is very difficult to pronounce

You can always do things like I do. Instead of saying "Preferiría ir al cine", try "¿Porqué no vamos mejor al cine?".

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Tomisimo

You can always do things like I do. Instead of saying "Preferiría ir al cine", try "¿Porqué no vamos mejor al cine?".

That definitely works better in some situations!! MUCH better.

But, given the example from my original post ... "How are you doing?" "Fine, but I'd rather be outside." I can't really express it like that. I'll keep thinking on the gustaría idea ... but am still working on saying "preferiría".

[sosia]

-Hola, ¿Como está?
-Estaría mejor fuera, bajo el sol
-Estaría mejor en la calle
-Estaría mejor fuera disfrutando de la pimavera
-Estaría mejor en el exterior

other ways
-Bien, pero estaría mejor en la calle
-Bien, pero preferiría estar en la calle
-Nien, pero me gustaría estar en la calle


Saludos

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by sosia

-Hola, ¿Como está?
-Estaría mejor fuera, bajo el sol
-Estaría mejor en la calle
-Estaría mejor fuera disfrutando de la pimavera
-Estaría mejor en el exterior

other ways
-Bien, pero estaría mejor en la calle
-Bien, pero preferiría estar en la calle
-Nien, pero me gustaría estar en la calle


Saludos

Thanks, Sosia! Those are ALL very helpful ....... but ...... although I totally see the sentence structures that you're recommending (and they are each very accessible for my ability level...) I do NOT understand why I would ever want to be "en la calle"!! Doesn't "calle" mean street/road? Why would I want to be in the street? Doesn't that sound like I have a death wish? Huh??

[sosia]

I'm asuming you're inside of a building, working.
When you're saying "salir/ir a la calle" literally "to go out/go to the street" means "to stop working and go wandering ¿in? the streets (outside)"
Saludos

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by sosia

I'm asuming you're inside of a building, working.
When you're saying "salir/ir a la calle" literally "to go out/go to the street" means "to stop working and go wandering ¿in? the streets (outside)"
Saludos

Right - that is what I took it to mean. But why would one go wandering in the streets? Isn't that very, very dangerous? Or is it a figure of speech? One wouldn't actually wander in a street, right?

[sosia]

When you say to the kids "go playing outside!" we say "¡salir a la calle a jugar!".
To us "the street" it's everything outside our house.
We do not say really to the kids "go lost ourselves in the most terrific streets of the city" (where Elaina lives , or Poli, in New York )
Saludos