would rather can be used as a cover term instead of the other phrases or verbs for stating preferences

Question

Speakspeak exercises

Having taken into consideration the link above, could we use the following to talk about either a general statement or a specific one?-- I mean just the following has the capacity for showing either of the previous statement, not the other ones such as prefer, would prefer, and so on.

would rather

Please feel free to ask me any question, so that you can get what I really want to know. Any help would be appreciated

Updated:

I would rather go swimming-- as a general statement, i.e., as a habit or favourit activity.

I would rather go swimming now.-- as a specific statement, i.e., at the time of talking.

Basically, my question is the fact that we could use the phrase would rather to show either of the situations. Nonetheless, we could not use the other phrases like prefer and so on to show such a function at the exact time

Answer 1

Would rather Y means instead of X, the subject wants to do Y. X is established/understood by context or previous sentences/conversation if an instead-type clause is not in the sentence.

I would rather go swimming

This likely means we were talking about doing something else, and I don't want to do whatever that is, I want to go swimming. When? Context/previous sentences would determine that.

I would rather go swimming now

Someone may have suggested we swim at a later time, or do something else now other than swim. I don't want to do that, I want to swim now.

Prefer to Y means the same, but does not have the meaning of actively rejecting/disliking the alternative that would rather Y does.

I prefer to go swimming now

You are saying you more want to go swimming than the alternative, and you are not outright saying the alternative is something you don't want to do (though you are implying it because obviously you are saying you want to do something else instead).

So prefer to X can be considered a more polite form of would rather.

In any case, would rather Y doesn't change the general-ness or specific-ness of Y.