Learn English – Use of the word “rather”

commas

One of our teachers wrote the following sentence in his Parent Orientation handout:

We will not be learning these subjects daily rather they will be learned weekly as follows:

Should there be a comma before "rather", or perhaps a semicolon, and then a comma after "rather"?

Best Answer

The issue is that no conjunction or punctuation is used to distinguish the two independent clauses:

We will not be learning these subjects daily | rather they will be learned weekly as follows:

There are two independent clauses, and rather modifies the second clause:

Clause 1: We will not be learning these subjects daily

Clause 2: Rather they will be learned weekly as follows

I suggest strategies that either separate or link independent clauses. Either start a new sentence with "rather" or use a conjunction with a comma to link the two clauses:

We will not be learning these subjects daily. Rather, they will be learned weekly as follows:

We will not be learning these subjects daily, but rather they will be learned weekly as follows:

The teacher could also use a semicolon if they think the two clauses are closely related:

We will not be learning these subjects daily; rather, they will be learned weekly as follows:

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