Rather Than Vs Instead of

christiancryan : MGMAT
There IS a crucial difference between "rather than" and "instead of" that you should know. "Rather than" is a conjunction and so can be followed by basically anything, whereas "instead of" is a (complex) preposition -- and a preposition should be followed only by a noun. 

Now, the noun can be an "-ing" verb, known as a gerund. So, the sentences you quote are not grammatically wrong in this regard. However, the GMAT seems to prefer "rather than" in comparisons of verbs, because the parallelism is clearest: 

(1) "I ski rather than snowboard." -- Correct. 
(2) "I ski instead of snowboarding." -- Correct, but a 'little' less parallel, so (1) is slightly preferable. The GMAT probably won't test this point in isolation, though  so we're going to revise the question. 

You can also use "rather than" to compare phrases or clauses. In that context, "instead of" is absolutely wrong, even though it's heard in spoken English: 
(3) "I went in the cellar rather than in the attic." -- Correct. 
(4) "I went in the cellar instead of in the attic." -- INCORRECT although this 'sounds' normal to me, to be honest! (That's why you have to retrain your ear -- it's not always grammatically right!) 
(5) "I went in the cellar instead of the attic." -- Also correct. No difference in preference between (3) and (5). 

As for the meaning of the two expressions -- to my ear, they have slightly different connotations or nuances ("instead of" sounds more like an actual replacement to me than "rather than," which is somehow softer), but the GMAT doesn't seem to test that connotational difference. 

So -- when in doubt, go with "rather than"! 

RonPurewal : ( MGMAT)

You are right to want to split hairs here, as there are often subtle differences in accepted usage of similar expressions. However, 'rather than' and 'instead of' are pretty much interchangeable. If there are any differences in their usage, then such differences will undoubtedly boil down to writers' personal preferences. 
So, in short: don't worry about it. And if you see a 'split' between these two expressions in a multiple-choice problem, then the split is probably there to deflect your attention away from the splits that actually matter (those sneaky @(*%^@(&*'s!!)


http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/questions-involving-comparison-a-huge-confusion-t1593.html


StaceyKoprince ( MGMAT)
Keys to remember for this test: 

Both "X rather than Y" and "X instead of Y" will require parallelism for X and Y. 

Instead OF begins a prepositional phrase, so Y will have to be in the form of a noun. Since parallelism is required, so will X. 
Rather THAN can be followed by verbs or nouns - it's more flexible. 

Solely as a result of that, "rather than" is more commonly right than "instead of" ON THE GMAT because there are more errors we can build into "instead of" options. If you have to guess, choose an option that uses "rather than." But, ideally, check the rest of the sentence (and don't forget about that parallelism issue!). 

Note that this also means they won't give you two choices that are otherwise completely grammatically correct and use nouns for X and Y - and for which one uses "rather than" and the other uses "instead of." There'd be no way to choose - they'd both be right. (Yet another reason why "rather than" tends to be right on the GMAT more often than "instead of.")


Example :

1.     Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic. 

A) Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic 
B) Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of it away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic 
C) Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic 
D) Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of it away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic 

      E) Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of it away, metal tableware has begun to be supplied recently instead of plastic at Bob's Java Hut

 OA : D



2. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
C. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
D. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
E. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.

OA : D