I'd rather GO or WENT?

[Alexandre Derezhenko]

Which is more correct:

Did you enjoy the picnic? It was ok, but I’d rather go (or went) to a movie.

 

[Nightmare85]

***Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.***

Hi,
I don't know if we can speak of "more correct".
Either it's correct or not. ;-)

Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would rather go to a movie.
I don't think this is correct, because would go is not past.
You could say:
Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would rather go to a movie next time.

So I would say:
Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would have rather gone to a movie.

However, I would like to hear some teacher's opinion as well since this sentence is not that easy.

Cheers!

 

[bhaisahab]

***Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.***

Hi,
I don't know if we can speak of "more correct".
Either it's correct or not. ;-)

Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would rather go to a movie.
I don't think this is correct, because would go is not past.
You could say:
Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would rather go to a movie next time.

So I would say:
Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was ok, but I would have rather gone to a movie.

However, I would like to hear some teacher's opinion as well since this sentence is not that easy.

Cheers!

Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was OK, but I would rather have gone to a movie.

 

[Nightmare85]

Did you enjoy the picnic?
It was OK, but I would rather have gone to a movie.

Hehe, thanks.
Your version sounds better to me. :up:
(I wonder why I didn't write it that way :-o)

Cheers!

 

[SoothingDave]

Which is more correct:

Did you enjoy the picnic? It was ok, but I’d rather go (or went) to a movie.

I see nothing wrong with "I'd rather go to a movie." It's a comparison of a picnic as a "thing to do" versus going to a movie. How was the picnic? OK, but I'd rather go to a movie (than go to a picnic.)

 

[probus]

"I'd rather went to" is just plain wrong, to answer the thread-originator's question simply.

As pointed out by Nightmare85, there is a grammatical argument against "I'd rather go to": considering sequence of tenses strictly, the correct form is "I'd rather have gone to".

Although that is technically correct, nevertheless "I'd rather go to" is what we hear colloquially all the time.

 

[5jj]

As pointed out by Nightmare85, there is a grammatical argument against "I'd rather go to": considering sequence of tenses strictly, the correct form is "I'd rather have gone to".

Although that is technically correct, nevertheless "I'd rather go to" is what we hear colloquially all the time.

My reading of what Nightmare 85 wrote is that he considered "I'd rather go to" to be correct, provided that some time marker such as "next time" was added.

I feel that it is not even necessary to add the time marker, as SoothingDave also seems to feel.

"I'd rather have gone to" is correct only if we are talking about the speaker's preferred past activity.

As you rightly write: "I'd rather went to" is just plain wrong, to answer the thread-originator's question simply.

 

[Verona_82]

However, we can say "I'd rather we went to a movie than sat all day at home", can't we?

 

[bhaisahab]

However, we can say "I'd rather we went to a movie than sat all day at home", can't we?

Yes, we can.