<p>The following is from the 2008 Alternate PSAT:
"Many scientists concerned about the danger of radioactive waste believe that nuclear reactors using fusion would be preferable over those using fission. No Error.</p>
<p>The answer is C, “preferable over.” Could anyone provide an explanation? What would be the difference between “preferable to” and “preferable over”.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure preferable over is never correct. It’s always preferable to.</p>
<p>Subsidize is right, its “preferable to”, not “preferable over” <–colloquial language.</p>
<p>[preferable</a> over - Google Search](<a href=“preferable over]preferable - Google Search”>preferable over - Google Search)</p>
<p>A lot of people seem to be using the phrase grammatically incorrectly, which I find counterintuitive to the meaning of an “idiom.” Oh well, we’ll roll with CB for now.</p>
<p>“X is preferable over Y” and “prefer X over Y” are grammatically correct as alternatives to (respectively) “X is preferable to Y” and “prefer X to Y.” These are not idioms. An example of an idiom is to kick the bucket, which is a saying that means “to die.” Idioms are very different.</p>
<p>“prefer to” is much more common than “prefer over,” but “prefer over” makes logical sense since “over” denotes a sense of superiority. So that question is problematic.</p>
<p>The College Board uses the term “idiom” to refer to grammatically correct structures that have no correct alternatives (in this case “preferable to” is the idiom and nothing else will work). This is not the ideal way of using grammar, because there is almost always more than one way of saying the same thing.</p>
<p>I have the same question!! kind of
Here’s the questions:
Izauka had a tendency (of changing) her mind often, (so often) in fact that her friends (gave up expecting) her (to show up at) their parties. </p>
<p>y is it (of changing) and not to show up at/to?</p>
<p>Finally, someone else that is weirded out by the CB’s use of the term idiom! When I first saw a CCer call a sentence unidiomatic, I was like “wait a second aren’t idioms things like ‘a piece of cake?’” Fishy…</p>