rather

1.注意下面两句里都用go，第一句里不用going，第二句里不用went：

• He insisted on staying rather than go.
• He stayed rather than go.

但下面第一句里用reading而不用read，第二句里用said而不用say：

• He was engaged in studying rather than reading the newspaper.
• He called rather than said to me 'Thank you'.

staying rather than go和stayed rather than go（宁愿留，不愿去）都表示主观的愿望，studying rather than reading和called rather than said表示客观的事实：

2.注意下面两组句子的结构：

• He depends on you rather than on me.
  He depends more on you than(不可用rather than)on me.
• They considered it practicable to remain where they were ratherthan to push on across the river.
  They considered it more practicable to remain where they werethan(不可用rather than)to push on across the river.

rather than和more...than都可以说，但既然用了more...than便不可加上rather。

3.a rather big dog和rather a big dog都可以说。参见a, an 24

4.had rather是习语，必须用had，不可用have，后面接没有to的不定式，例如：I had rather stay with John than with Charles.

5.I would（或had）rather you paid me now, He would（或had）rather his children didn't make so much noise等句子里的rather后面通常接不用that引导的从句，那从句里用虚拟过去式。