German word of the day: Eher

1. Why do I need to know eher?

Because it's a very common and useful German word with a variety of meanings.

What does it mean?

Not to be confused with the identical sounding word Ehe meaning "marriage" this little word can say a lot.

One of the main uses of eher is to indicate a preference, much like the English word "rather". When used in this way, it indicates a leaning towards one option without completely dismissing another, for example: Ich trinke eher Tee als Kaffee translates to "I'd rather have tea than coffee". 

In a related meaning, eher can also indicate a degree or extent of something, like the Engish words "somewhat" or "rather", for example: Das Essen war eher gut ("The food was somewhat good").

In this way, eher can also indicate probability or likelihood, also like the English word "rather", it can be used to suggest the chances of something happening. For instance, Das ist eher unwahrscheinlich can be translated as "that is rather unlikely." Here, eher emphasises the unlikeliness of the situation.

An alternative - but very important (especially in Germany) - meaning of the word eher is in the context of time. It is used very much as a stand-in for the word früher meaning "earlier". Confusingly, you could put both meanings of the word eher next to each other in a sentence in German, like this: 

Ich würde eher eher anfangen

Use it like this:

Das Konzert beginnt eher, als wir dachten.

The concert starts earlier than we thought.

Sie ist eher für ihre Zuverlässigkeit bekannt als für ihre Kreativität.

She's more known for her reliability than for her creativity.