Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
I had rather—The Greek verb more literally expresses this meaning, "I WISH to speak five words with my understanding (rather) than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue"; even the two thousandth part of ten thousand. The Greek for "I would rather," would be a different verb. Paul would NOT wish at all to speak "ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."
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