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Italian Grammar Lessons: Piuttosto Che

‘Piuttosto che’ means ‘rather than’ in English. Synonymous Italian phrases might be ‘pur di non’ or ‘per non’.

Here are some examples of these phrases in use:

Piuttosto che guardare la tv anche stasera, potremmo andare al cinema.
Piuttosto che mangiare alla mensa universitaria, potresti venire a pranzo da me.

Pur di non lavare i piatti, sarebbe disposta a fare le pulizie per una settimana.
Pur di non andare a scuola, Martina inventava di star male.

Sometimes this expression is used wrongly to meanĀ ‘or’. Our Italian experts say it makes them shudder, worse than missing the subjunctive (!) But they admit, it’s often heard.

Examples of this (unacceptable to many people) use are:

Possiamo guardare la tv, piuttosto che andare in discoteca, piuttosto che mangiare fuori.
Scegliete se volete il gelato, piuttosto che la pizza, piuttosto che la torta.

Don’t tell anyone you learned it here…

Back to Italian lesson on: piuttosto che

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