Rather usage 2

Rather usage 2

Rather a with a noun is more common in formal language than in informal language, particularly in writing:
1. It was rather a surprise to find them in the house before me.
We often use rather with a lot to refer to large amounts and quantities:
1. It cost me rather a lot of money. You’ve given me rather a lot.
2. We also use rather a lot to mean ‘often’
  1. They went there rather a lot. You’ll be seeing rather a lot of me over the next few weeks.
We use rather with more and less + an adjective or adverb in formal writing to make a comparison with something:
1. Now that she saw Rupert again, he was rather less interesting and a little older than she had remembered him.
We use rather with like to refer to similarities. We use rather like to mean ‘quite similar to’:
1. They were small animals, rather like rats. I was in the middle. I felt rather like a referee at a football match trying to be fair and keep the sides apart.

Resource summary

	Created by blanca gonzález over 7 years ago