Test: Wouldn't you sooner ... tea than coffee in England?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello everybody,
I’m doing a test now and have the following questions there:

  1. Wouldn’t you sooner… tea than coffee in England?
    a) had drunk, b)have drunk, c) has drunk

The key says it should be “have drunk”, but I don’t see why. I mean, my choice would be simply “drink” if it were meant to refer to the present or ‘had drunk’ for the past. Is it possible to have present perfect after this structure?

I’d prefer … a jacket and tie.
a) him wearing b) him ought to wear c) him to wear

I agree with the key that the right choice is C, but my book also says that structure I’d prefer+sb+ing is also possible, so A should be correct too, right? Or not? Please, help :).

2

  1. I agree with you that simply “drink” would be the first thing that comes to mind. However, between the choices you have, only “have drunk” is at all possible because we need an infinitive after “would”, not a finite verb like the other two choices.

  2. I agree that A is often used as well, I would call it correct. If you search through Google you will find that both in fact have about the same frequency! Choice A is perhaps a trifle more colloquial, but “I prefer him to wear” is not altogether the most beautiful construction either. I prefer “I prefer that he wear / should wear …” or “I prefer his wearing …”.

3

Cerberus, thank you so much for you explanations. I’ve got one more question about this sentence: “Wouldn’t you sooner have drunk tea than coffee in England?” - does it refer to past or present/future time?

Regards!

4

The past: it is supposed to be about an unreal situation in the past. There should be an implied condition, an “if” clause, that is not fulfilled. Such as “if you had gone to England …”, or whatever other condition you could come up with.