Plutôt – rather

Today we’ll look at the French adverb plutôt which has several translations including rather, instead and sooner.

plutôt

rather

Word origin

Plutôt in Modern French comes from plustost in Middle French and plus tost in Old French. From the 16th century onwards, these words replaced ains et ainçois, which came from antius in Latin.

Note that while the single word plutôt means rather, the two seperate words plus tôt mean “earlier” as the adjective tôt means “early”.

Example sentences

This first example sentence is in the conditional tense. The verb prendre means “to take” and means “have” in the context of ordering meals.

Je prendrais plutôt du champagne.

I’d rather have champagne.

For this second sentence, the reflexive verb se donner rendez-vous means “to arrange to meet”.

Je suis très occupé demain. On peut se donner rendez-vous samedi plutôt ?

I’m very busy tomrorow. Can we arrange to meet on Saturday instead?

For this final sentence, plutôt que can translate to “rather than” or “instead of”.

Je préférerais acheter une camionnette plutôt qu’une voiture.

I’d prefer to buy a pickup truck rather than a car.

Word of the Day Lessons | Lessons by David Issokson

Related lessons

• French adverbs
• Maintenant – now
• Trop – too, too much
• Jusqu’à – until
• Très Bien – very well

References

• Wiktionary
• Larousse Dictionary

David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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