instead of

English

Preposition

instead of

1. In lieu of; in place of; rather than.

   He walked to school instead of taking the car.

   • 1611, King James Version, Exodus 4:16:

     And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

Usage notes

• Instead of is always followed by a noun (often a gerund).

Translations

in lieu of; in place of; rather than

• Arabic: بَدَلًا مِن (badalan min)

  Egyptian Arabic: بدل ما (badal ma)

  Moroccan Arabic: فعوض ما (f-ʕūṭ ma)

• Assamese: -অৰ সলনি (-or xoloni)
• Bashkir: урынына (urınına)
• Belarusian: заме́ст (zamjést)
• Bengali: পরিবর্তে (poriborte)
• Bulgarian: вме́сто (bg) (vmésto)
• Catalan: en comptes de
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 代替 (zh) (dàitì)

• Czech: namísto (cs), místo (cs)
• Danish: i stedet for
• Dutch: in plaats van (nl)
• Esperanto: anstataŭ (eo)
• Finnish: sen sijaan että, sen sijaan, asemesta (fi)
• French: à la place de (fr), au lieu de (fr)
• Georgian: ნაცვლად (nacvlad), მაგივრად (magivrad)
• German: an Stelle von, anstelle von, statt (de), anstatt (de), anstelle (de)
• Greek: αντί (el) (antí)

  Ancient: ἀντί (el) (antí) (+ gen.)

• Hebrew: בִּמְקוֹם (bimkom)
• Hindi: के बजाय (ke bajāy)
• Hungarian: helyett (hu), (if a gerund is expressed with a verb form) ahelyett, hogy
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: vice (io)
• Indonesian: alih-alih (id), bukannya (id)
• Irish: in ionad, in áit
• Italian: invece di, invece che, anziché (it)
• Japanese: …の代わりに (…のかわりに, ... no kawari ni)
• Korean: 대신 (ko) (daesin)
• Latin: pro (la) (+ abl.)
• Macedonian: наместо (namesto), место (mesto)
• Norwegian: istedenfor (no), i staden for, i stedet for (no)
• Persian: به جای (be jấ-ye)
• Polish: zamiast (pl)
• Portuguese: ao invés de (pt), em vez de (pt)
• Russian: вме́сто (ru) (vmésto), взаме́н (ru) (vzamén)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀мјесто, (Ijekavian), у̀место (Ekavian)

  Roman: ùmjesto (Ijekavian), ùmesto (Ekavian)

• Slovak: namiesto
• Slovene: namesto
• Spanish: en lugar de, en vez de
• Swedish: i stället för
• Telugu: బదులు (te) (badulu)
• Thai: แทน (th) (tɛɛn)
• Ukrainian: за́мість (zámistʹ), замі́сто (zamísto)
• Urdu: کے بجاۓ (ke bajāy)
• Vietnamese: thay vì (vi)
• Walloon: estô di (wa), el plaece di (wa)

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