Explanation for beginners: 〇〇より〇〇(の)方が〇〇

[宇崎ちゃん]

Everyone learning Japanese beyond the most basic grammar structure sees this structure quite a lot: 〇〇より〇〇(の)方が〇〇.

For example: 赤色より青色の方が好き
This is the Japanese equivelant to "I prefer blue over red", except in the reverse order.
Think like "red is fine, but I prefer blue".

Just like English, you can just say which you prefer and the rest can be skipped (which might be much easier for western language speakers).
Like 青色の方が好き→I prefer blue.

Unlike English, you can skip the preferring part and only use the inferior part, like 赤色より好き.
Of course based on the discussion it should be clear that you prefer blue, otherwise people would think "what do you prefer over red?".

And then you ask "why is it sometimes の方が and sometimes 方が!?", the answer is that 方が is more for giving advise, while の方が is more for comparison.
So in this case we compared 2 colours and which you like more.
In the 方が sense, you can say 病気ながら、寝た方が良いと思います, which means "if you're ill, I think it's better if you sleep".
Of course you can replace 寝た方が for 寝る方が, but the difference is in general advise vs personal advise.

寝た方が良い is used to give you specifically the advise to sleep when you're ill, while 寝る方が良い is used to point out the well known fact that you should sleep if you're ill.

ルールを守る方が良い→it's better if everyone sticks to the rules.
ルールを守った方が良い→it's better if YOU stick to the rules.

Unlike の方が, 方が has no より part.

That's all.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Blaveloper
Anti-spam software bans me whenever I make my posts easy to read. Apparently doesn't apply to edits.