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Well, 'rather' isn't a verb
If may not have been considered a verb by many now, but it probably will be considered a verb by many in 5 or 10 years time. Language evolves and is driven by usage, usage doesn't always conform to the rules.
Greenbank-
If may not have been considered a verb by many now, but it probably will be considered a verb by many in 5 or 10 years time.
Well, I've never heard it used as a verb until now and I think few people will have. The step from nouns to verbs in English is obviously very small, so you expect that it will be taken all the time. It's much less common for an adverb/preposition to take that step.
Language evolves and is driven by usage, usage doesn't always conform to the rules.
You don't say. :) However, linguistic creativity originates from a person's understanding of language rather than being a question of passively accepting 'usage', whether people know what they're doing or not, and linguistic understanding is always subject to certain rules. Rules get broken, but new ones get introduced, too.
Oliver Schick
Well, 'rather' isn't a verb, so I was actually wondering what the meaning of the verb was supposed to be. :)