"Rather Than" and Parallel Structure in Technical English
5 exercises — practise parallel structure with "rather than" when comparing technical approaches.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly keeps parallel gerund forms on both sides of "rather than"?
"Rather than rewriting the whole module, we patched the two failing functions" is correct: the gerund "rewriting" matches the implied gerund idea of the contrasted action, and the sentence stays clean and parallel. Option B uses the bare infinitive "rewrite" and adds a redundant "this way instead, too". Option C incorrectly adds "to" before the gerund clause. Option D breaks tense consistency and adds a confusing tag.
2 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly matches infinitive with infinitive across a "rather than" comparison of two proposed actions.
"It would be better to add a feature flag rather than to deploy directly to all users" is correct: both compared actions use the to-infinitive, keeping the structure parallel (the second "to" can optionally be omitted, but including it explicitly is also correct and clear). Option B mixes an infinitive with a gerund. Option C starts with a gerund but switches to infinitive. Option D drops "than" entirely.
3 / 5
Select the sentence that correctly keeps parallel structure when "rather than" starts the sentence and both compared items are noun phrases.
"Rather than a full rewrite, the team chose a targeted refactor" is correct: both sides are noun phrases ("a full rewrite" and, implicitly, "a targeted refactor"), keeping the comparison structurally parallel. Option B awkwardly invents an ungrammatical verb "targeted-refactor". Option C mismatches a gerund clause against a noun phrase, though this specific pairing is more borderline, it strays from the cleaner noun-noun parallel shown in option A. Option D scrambles the fixed phrase's word order.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly avoids the common error of mixing a gerund and a bare infinitive across "rather than" in a design recommendation?
"Rather than polling the endpoint every second, subscribe to the webhook instead" is correct: the gerund "polling" describes the rejected approach, and the imperative "subscribe" gives the recommended action clearly, without a structural mismatch. Option B reverses the forms, putting the bare form first and the gerund second. Option C mismatches gerund with a to-infinitive main clause. Option D adds "to" before the gerund clause, which is ungrammatical.
5 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly uses parallel past-tense clauses (not gerunds) on both sides of "rather than", describing what actually happened versus what didn't.
"The team fixed the root cause rather than applied a temporary workaround" is correct: with two finite past-tense verbs describing completed actions by the same subject, matching finite forms ("fixed" ... "applied") keeps the comparison parallel. Option B switches to a gerund, breaking the finite-verb parallelism established by "fixed". Option C incorrectly uses a to-infinitive. Option D introduces an unrelated passive clause with a different subject, breaking parallel structure entirely.