Preferring

How to spell preferring

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce preferring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preferring mean?

1. verbLiking or choosing one thing or option more than another.

Preferring in a sentence

• Many commuters are now preferring the train over driving into the city.

• She replied to the survey, preferring a morning appointment to an evening one.

Where does preferring come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'prefer', which English took from the Old French 'preferer' in the late 1300s, itself drawn from the Latin 'praeferre'. That Latin verb was built from 'prae', meaning 'before' or 'in front of', and 'ferre', meaning 'to carry' or 'to bear', so its literal sense was 'to carry something in front', that is, to set one thing ahead of another. From that physical image of placing something first grew the modern meaning of valuing one option above the rest. The root 'ferre' is remarkably productive in English and also gives us 'transfer' (carry across), 'refer' (carry back), and 'infer' (carry in). The spelling trap in 'preferring' comes from stress: because the spoken emphasis lands on the final syllable 'fer', the consonant doubles before the ending, which is why it is 'preferring' and not the single-r form people sometimes write by analogy with 'offering'.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• fer (from Latin ferre: to carry, to bear)
• -ring (doubled r before -ing because the stress falls on the final syllable)