how to pronounce rather

/ˈɹæðɚ/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of rather is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

rather is pronounced in two syllables

press buttons with phonetic symbols to learn how to precisely pronounce each sound of rather

1.

2. example pitch curve for pronunciation of rather

test your pronunciation of rather

press the "test" button to check how closely you can replicate the pitch of a native speaker in your pronunciation of rather

video examples of rather pronunciation

An example use of rather in a speech by a native speaker of american english:

“… is naturally up here rather than as if …”

meaning of rather

Rather means to prefer or to be more inclined to.

rather frequency in english - A1 level of CEFR

the word rather occurs in english on average 296.9 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for A1 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics rather can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that rather can be often used in the following areas:

1) communication, information, and media;

2) people, society, and culture;