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rather = prefer, here. As in the choice between self driving cars and buses.
by lstamour 11y ago
rather = prefer, here. As in the choice between self driving cars and buses.
- CWuestefeld 11y agoI was also confused, and I'm a native speaker. Understanding that "rather" means "prefer" is obvious. The sentence could be read as "I prefer to be on the road with a bus since I think it's safer". Or it could be "choosing what's most dangerous, I'd rather say it's a bus". It's also not clear what the perspective of the speaker is. It might be that a bus is safer for the rider, but more dangerous for cars around it. So would he rather be on board a bus, or rather on the road with a bus?
- trelltron 11y agoI have no idea how you could get that second interpretation from what he said. And the perspective is clearly inherited from the parent comment, who didn't mention being "on board" a bus, just "on the road with" a bus. No ambiguity in that comment that I can see. EDIT: I guess the use of rather in this context could be a colloquialism?