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Which of these sentences is correct?

  1. "Who would you rather had won?"

  2. "Who would you rather have won?"

  3. "Who would you rather have win?"

  4. "Who would you rather had win?"

I can find instances of people using all of these on Google, but some are more common than the others, but why?

Personally, I'd go with the first one, it seems the most appropriate, but I'd like it if someone can tell me if it is correct or not.

Also, if I chose to respond to that question with this sentence, would it be correct?

"I would (have) rather that either A or B won"

Also also, should I have a "have" in that sentence or not, I don't see how that changes the sentence in any way, but I'm curious to know if it does.

Thanks

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    The only sentence that's ungrammatical is 4.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jun 4, 2019 at 19:58
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    @jason why is 2 not ungrammatical for the same lack of agreement as 4 shows?
    – David Siegel
    Commented Jun 4, 2019 at 20:27

1 Answer 1

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1 is entirely grammatical, but feels to me a bit old-fashioned somehow. But i can't say just how, so it may be that my perceptions are in error.

Examples 2 and 4 are, I believe, ungrammatical for a lack of agreement between had/have and win/won

3 puts the matter in the present tense, which can be used to discuss the future, so this form seems to me to be discussing a contest not yet over, rather than a post-mortum on one already decided.

I suspect that using "prefer" instead of "rather" will make these sentences more natural. Consider two variations on the answer:

  • I would have preferred that either A or B won
  • I would prefer that either A or B win

From these I conclude that "have" is needed in the past tense, but should not be used in the present tense.

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    I looked over this answer again and don't see an error in nit. If I ahve missed an error, or made a mistake, I wish someone would tell me instead of simply silently donvoting.
    – David Siegel
    Commented Jun 4, 2019 at 20:29

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