Other forms: preferred, prefers, preferring
To prefer is to like one thing more than another. I prefer tea. She prefers to walk. It is the standard way of stating a choice politely.
The grammar is where the mistakes are. Prefer takes to, never than: I prefer tea to coffee. With verbs it takes either form — prefer to walk, prefer walking — and both are correct, though prefer doing to doing is the pattern when two activities are compared. Would prefer is the polite conditional and is commoner in speech than the plain form. Note preferable, which is stressed on the first syllable, and preference, which takes for.
1verbpreferTo like one thing more than another.
“She prefers the early train to the crowded one.”
synonyms: favour, would rather
2verbchooseTo choose one option over another.
“They preferred to say nothing at all.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
prefer is a way of choosing.
Latin praeferre is prae-, before, plus ferre, to carry — to carry one thing in front of another. Preferring is putting one thing ahead, and the same ferre gives transfer, refer and suffer.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰer-
Latin
praeferō
Anglo-Norman
preferer
Middle English
preferren
English, today
prefer
From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer, from Latin praeferō. Displaced native Old English foresettan and foreberan. a doublet of prelate. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well as collate and confer among others.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA