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also, pls, tell me why

"Pucci is a cat rather than a dog " is wrong whereas

"puccy is not a dog but a cat " is right

Rather than VS Instead of

Rather than is less restrictive than 'instead of': 'rather than' can be used with just about any part of speech. so, for instance, I can write any of the following:

I chose to forsake my chance to attend law school rather than accrue major debt to enter a career about which I was ambivalent (used with verb)

James differs from many negotiators in that his default attitude toward negotiation is cooperative rather than confrontational (used with adjective)

I chose to rent a compact car rather than a midsize sedan (used with nouns)

Instead of, by contrast, can only be used with nouns, or with constructions that function as nouns (like gerunds and noun phrases).

For sentences in which either of the two constructions is acceptable, our rather extensive research indicates that the GMAT prefers 'rather than' pretty much across the board. So, if you're in doubt, you might want to go with that one.


Rather than - shows preference. This expression is generally used in 'parallel' structures. e.g. - with two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, infinitives or -ing forms.

1). We ought to invest in machinery rather than buildings.
2). I prefer starting early rather than leaving things to the last minute.


Instead of - suggests that one person, thing replaces another.

1). I'll have tea instead of coffee, please.
2). I stayed in bed all day instead of going to work.
3). Amit was invited to the reception, but he was ill, so Akash went instead of him.

To make it simple: If to be used with Infinitives (to + verb) use rather than ...in all other choices you will get some other errors than this one...

Difference between
Not/But and "Rather than"
Not/But --> is an conjunction, we used conjunction to join things that is grammatically equivalent.
Rather than --> used to express preference of one thing over another.
Lets apply this principle over above sentence.
"Pucci is a cat rather than a dog " --> This sentence sounds crazy isn't it. Intended meaning is all lost.
In summary
use Not/But to join or compare grammatically equivalent parts of a sentence.
use Rather Than to show preference of one thing over other.
e.g. I like dog rather than cat
For "Instead of vs Rather Than"
"Instead of" gives choices.In all the SC questions between "Instead of and Rather Than" I have seen "Rather Than" as correct choice.
HTH

I want to back up what Sumithshah said.

The basic idea is that "rather than" is what you use when you're making a choice between two options (similar in idea to "I'd rather do this than do that"), and "instead of" is used for replacement ("This recipe is just like the traditional version, but use oil instead of butter"). In actual use, however, I can't recall ever seeing an example in which the GMAT preferred "instead of". If "instead of" is there but not "rather than", then "instead of" may well be the correct choice, but whenever the GMAT sets up a choice between "instead of" and "rather than," it seems to always be the case that "rather than" is the one they're looking for. Not because "instead of" is bad English, but just because this is how they always seem to set it up.

_________________
Karen van Hoek, PhD
Verbal Specialist

Test Prep New York
maximize your score, minimize your stress
www.testprepny.com
karen@testprepny.com

Small tip:

instead of << noun >> ONLY

rather than << adjective>>
<<noun >>
<< verb >>

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And this is exactly why GMAC prefers RATHER to instead of.

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Dear Karen

My question is that " rather than" has only the meaning of preference (choice) or has both meaning of preference and replacing???

In many gmat questions I do not see the meaning of preference but "rather than" is still used there. WHY?

in this site (pls, copy)

http://gmatsentencecorrection.blogspot.com/search/label/Rather%20than%20vs%20instead%20of

you will see that in the question 668,836,23 there is not meaning of choice "preference", but "rather than" is still used,

Ple explain

Oh, I see what you mean. I don't know where the example on that blog came from, but here's the set-up and the choices we're looking at:

I see what you mean in that (B) isn't describing a choice that someone is making, but the important point is that (B) (the correct answer) describes which of the two choices is the correct option. In other words, the phrase "rather than" is correct because what it's saying is "the correct explanation is this and not that." Whenever you have a "this and not that" kind of situation, it's "rather than." "Instead of" would be used if you actually replace something -- that is, if they were saying that they somehow replaced "increases in the population" with "conversions," the same way you can replace butter with margarine. Since population increase is an abstraction, though, not something you can manipulate like butter and margarine, it's unlikely that you could construct a context in which "instead of" would be correct.

There's another factor that clinches the fact that (D) cannot be right, though: (D) is a comma splice -- an independent clause joined to the main clause by nothing more than a comma. And (C) can't be right because it's not parallel -- "the population's increasing" is a gerund phrase that's similar to a clause and "conversions" is a noun.

The bottom line, though, is that it seems nobody has seen a case where the GMAT forces a choice between "rather than" and "instead of" in which the one they want is "instead of." The distinction between "rather than" and "instead of" is extremely hair-splitting, but it seems as if the GMAT always splits it on the side of wanting "rather than," so far as we've seen.

If anyone can find an example where the OA is "instead of" and "rather than" is rejected, please speak up!

_________________
Karen van Hoek, PhD
Verbal Specialist

Test Prep New York
maximize your score, minimize your stress
www.testprepny.com
karen@testprepny.com

Please advise if there's comma before "but" in below sentence:
It's not bad but boring!

Please check the attachment.
It simple and crisp.

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